HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

A study conducted by the newspaper NRC Handelsblad reveals that hundreds of children are locked up in isolation cells each year in the Netherlands because psychiatric clinics do not have the budget and staff to deal with them.

Although the law stipulates that solitary confinement can only be used when patients pose "an acute danger" to themselves or others, psychiatrists report that children as young as 12 are confined simply because they are "troublesome".

NRC Handelsblad writes that while the law states that patients may spend no more than seven days in solitary confinement "patients and their families report cases of children staying for weeks or even months in an isolation cell".
read more (expatica.com)

SCHOOLCHILDREN ARRESTED FOR THREATS read more (nrc.nl)

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February 16, 2009