ABSTRACT
The significance of putting children in detention is very real; the effects of detention on children are rarely positive and can be very damaging. The health needs of children and young people should therefore be the highest priority when they are held in detention. There has been an almost universal inclination to see children as small adults when it comes to processes to deal with their detention rather than individuals in their own right. Monitoring institutions that hold children and young people in detention calls for not only a thorough understanding of basic monitoring practice, but also a real understanding of the specific vulnerabilities of children and young people, their rights to be treated as individuals in their own right, the skills and personnel to find out the truth of their experiences, and a recognition of the very positive role they can play in the lives of some of the most vulnerable in society.
