Unpleasant truths about torture and abuse of children behind bars are the truths that may not set us free from guilt, apathy and indifference. It is not only in the Philippines' Bahay Pag-asa youth detention jails that children and the youth are maltreated and abused but also in many other countries. Treating the youth as criminals has a lifelong traumatic impact on them. One thing for sure is loss of trust and respect for the adult world of authority that allows them to be abused. As the saying goes, 'Abuse a child and you make an enemy.'

In Cambodia last June, Kak Sovann Chhay, an autistic 16-year-old Cambodian teenager who shares the human-rights activism of his jailed father, was himself detained. Kak Sovann Chhay had sent a message on Telegram to government supporters that was deemed insulting to government officials. The police broke into his house without a warrant. He was handcuffed, arrested, beaten and jailed in the adult jail of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. His mother is not allowed to visit him. A lawyer has reported squalid conditions not fit for an animal. United Nations officials have been alerted and expressed urgent concern for violations of the boy's human rights. He is facing two years in jail in the notorious subhuman conditions of a Cambodian prison. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58588022