Small Children In Prison

'I only steal from the rich Not from the poor, I steal because I am hungry', said the nine year old boy as he was interviewed in jail. Imprisoned for crimes like stealing food to appease hunger in the tummy, Etsoy and others are caged like animals sharing a pot of rice among 11 or 15 in-mates three times a day. Mixed with adult criminals charged with heinous crimes, here they are in jail without pencil, books, crayons and oil lamp, Here they dread going to sleep, scared of being raped. And they look at the high fences of concrete walls, invincible by their bare hands Here are fences that blind their eyes from seeing the meeting point between earth and sky. Here are walls that deny them to gaze at the sea, the boats, the jeepneys, the ships and passers-by, the birds perching on trees and the rice fields at harvest time. Yes, Etsoy and many more Etsoys are in this jail imprisoned, imprisoned behind these high impenetrable walls. Yes, the small children like Etsoy behind these concrete walls. are only called by numbers or nicknames for who dare to know their precious names? Behind these high concrete walls they are forgotten, denied of their childhood and life. And this prison is their own university of life.