‘I want you to continue to help children like us, because children are the future of the nation. I want also that you help us by giving us something to do, because if we have nothing to do it leads to dilemmas. Thank you in advance.’ ‘The police inspection was humiliating’. (MF/12-18/1:AFG) ‘Police have beaten us, used bad words and disgraced us’. (M/15-17/1:APG) ‘Only one police man spoke English, we could only understand the insults’. (M/17/3:WEOG) Isolation from family and friends, alongside the pains of confinement, meant that for many the trauma associated with deprivation of liberty was profound, and likely to have lasting impact: ‘We are safe here physically, everything is well, but we have stress all time because every minute have a dream that is being out of here with my families and friends’. (M/13-16/1:APG) ‘It’s the freedom that we are seeking in this moment. We won’t forget all the things that happens in prison’. (M/13-17/1:AFG) Finally, a significant number of children reported feelings of isolation and loneliness in detention, particularly in pre-detention or in police stations. One young woman in a child justice institution was feeling this acutely at the time of the consultation as all the other girls had been released three months previously: ‘I am happy when I was with a lot of girls, now I am alone and I think I will be here for a long time’. (F/15/1:APG) 105

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