66 9. Persons deprived of their liberty at the places of detention visited by the NPM 9.1. Children deprived of their liberty Minors deprived of their liberty are more vulnerable than adults, irrespective of the reasons for their detention. Due to minors’ vulnerability deriving from their age, the personnel of places of detention holding minors has to be particularly vigilant to ensure that their physical and mental well-being is adequately protected.145 There is no children’s rights ombudsman in Hungary; however, while performing tasks related to the NPM, I have to pay special attention to the protection of the rights of the child. A child “is a person who has not yet reached 18 years of age, except if such a person becomes an adult earlier pursuant to the laws applicable to him or her”.146 The NPM’s visits to places of detention holding children deprived of their liberty focused, on the one hand, on gathering information on intentional abuse and ill-treatment, and, on the other, on finding out whether the detention environment is suitable for ensuring and protecting physical and mental well-being. 9.1.1. The Debrecen Reformatory of the Ministry of Human Capacities and its Nagykanizsa Unit147 The Debrecen Reformatory of the MoHC and its Nagykanizsa Unit receives boys aged 12-18 ordered to correctional education and held in pre-trial arrest. Juveniles who have committed a crime or are accused thereof may be educated in such institutions up until the age of 21 years. In the year of the visit, the utilisation rate of the Nagykanizsa Unit was nearly 50% whereas the Debrecen premises operated at more than 80% of their holding capacity. In the Nagykanizsa Unit with a capacity of 108 places, 48 juveniles were being resocialized, whereas in Debrecen there were 117 juveniles for 140 places. The aim of correctional education is to eliminate socialization deficiencies potentially leading to the perpetration of a crime, and to facilitate successful integration into society. With a view to their successful resocialization, it may occasionally become necessary for the juveniles taken into correctional education to remain in the institution in aftercare. Both locations had some aftercare places (12 in Nagykanizsa and 8 in Debrecen), but no juvenile was living there in aftercare in either of the facilities. The above situation can be put down to the fact that according to the legislation in force, juveniles may 145 146 147 See Clause 20 of 9th General Report on CPT’s activities [CPT/Inf (99) 12]. See Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Report No. AJB-493/2018.