On the 27^h November 2009, a meeting celebrating the outcomes of the Youth Justice Pilot Project was held in Kunming at the Jiaxin Hotel.

The one-day conference was hosted by the Panlong Youth Justice Pilot Project Office Director, Mr Zhang Yueru, and attended by over 100 people including provincial, city and district leaders, the first secretary of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Ms Vera Vroemen, representatives from Save the Children, specialists in youth justice and joint-office staff. Also among the attendees were around 20 “appropriate adults”, a group selected from the local community to perform a role similar to social workers, a key part of the pilot.

Funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in China, the Youth Justice Project was implemented between June 2002 and October 2009, a result of joint efforts between the Panlong District government and the Save the Children China Programme. The project worked with a number of government departments to offer legal protection to young offenders and create opportunities for diversion. The project worked on a number of levels: development of community support mechanisms enabled young people in conflict with the law to make a fresh start, receiving help from within their own communities rather than serving penalties in prison; research was undertaken to investigate the increasing social, family and educational factors behind why young people commit crimes; and crime prevention work was implemented harnessing the results of research.

Over the last few years there has been a marked downward trend in the numbers of juvenile offenders in the Panlong area. According to data collected by the pilot office, the numbers of cases of suspected and actual juvenile offenders heard by the Panlong Public Security Bureau reduced from 590 in 2005 to 161 during January and August 2009. The percentage of Panlong young people involved in court proceedings reduced from 16% in 2005 to 9% during the period 2006 to 2008.

The hottest topics of the Kunming conference were the initiatives “judicial diversion” and “appropriate adults”. Diversion was specifically aimed at 14 to 18 year olds suspected of crimes. In line with the pilot’s principle, “education first, punishment second”, alternative measures to detention, punishment and custody are sought where possible. This means that offenders aren’t extracted from their family, school or community environments to face the legal ramifications of their actions, instead undergoing supervision, training and coaching from “appropriate adults” in the community to get on the right track. The “Appropriate adults” undergo specialized training in law, psychology and sociology and other related disciplines. Their role is to attend police interviews and court proceedings, conduct and provide background checks and design a set of interrelated programmes to help young offenders reintegrate into society.

The Panlong District Politics and Law Committee Secretary, Zhou Chuanbiao, said that the district would endeavor to maintain the existing regulatory systems created by the pilot, provide financial support to preserve the “appropriate adult” groups, and incorporate and utilise other government or social networks such as Women’s Federations and the Communist Youth League. Zhou also expressed his hope that while the second phase of the pilot has been completed, the district would continue to benefit from the rich leadership, technical support, legal expertise and experience of Save the Children.

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