Caging children is child abuse. Forcibly splitting children from their parents is child abuse. This should not be a left/right issue. This is humane versus inhumane, right versus wrong. bit.ly/2MVLtTM
13 years ago, I co-founded @lumos, which works to stop child incarceration, reunite families a the truth about child institutions, often wrongly called ‘orphanages.’ There is a huge body of research to show that institutionalising children causes profound harm.
Institutionalisation was especially prevalent in Eastern Europe, where children were taken from their families to be ‘raised’ in state-run institutions. The statistics on these children’s subsequent life outcomes are appalling. (See @lumos website for all research)
Across the developing world, children with living parents are persuaded to institutionalise them, often with the promise of food, medical care or education, which frequently fails to materialise. Yet across the West, we banned ‘orphanages’ long ago, knowing the harm they cause.
Seeing mass incarceration of young children in the US is truly shocking. The evidence on child institutions has been clearcut for decades: they cause long term trauma, render children vulnerable to abuse and too often lead to disappearances. #ReuniteFamiliesNow
