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Mona is a child of tragedy — displaced by the 2004 tsunami that left her family impoverished. It was not surprising that the young girl found herself hanging out with gangs, and eventually becoming involved in petty crime — until she was caught with a friend, stealing a watch from a local store.

She could have been locked up for years, but thanks to the foresight of a few people in her community, she has a chance to step away from the challenges of her past.

As seen in recent weeks, for many Indonesian youngsters who commit petty crimes, such chances don’t materialize. But for Mona, the local police and the shopkeeper who suffered the loss of the watch believed there was a more constructive way of dealing with her crime than locking her up with other criminals. After discussions with all those involved, Mona accepted she had done wrong. The charges were set aside and commitments were made by the girl and her family to focus on skills training to keep her away from crime; today Mona repairs cellphones for a living.

Seeking alternatives to custodial sentences for minor crimes by children is not just good practice; it follows international standards. Few countries today believe that children who fall foul of the law should be put behind bars without any consideration of an alternative course of action.

Imprisoning children opens up possibilities of greater harm that nearly always exceed the seriousness of the original crime. Children found guilty of petty offenses have found themselves incarcerated with adults who teach them how to be “better” criminals. Global studies show that 82 percent of juveniles prosecuted as adults reoffend, often for more serious crimes than their original ones. Many are traumatized by their detention, fall victim to abuse and then suffer stigmatization in their communities upon release. The prospects of such children being able to follow a productive, constructive life in society are severely limited.

Children should be held accountable for their actions. But accountability does not mean just throwing away the key, nor does it mean allowing victims of crime to decide how a child should be punished. It requires looking at what is in the best interests of the child, and of the society in which that child lives. It means that parents, teachers, local leaders and law enforcement and social welfare agencies must all play a role to ensure that children get the chance to make amends. They can become productive members of their communities and make a contribution to society that more than compensates for any crime they may have committed.

Despite the public outcry at recent high-profile cases of justice for children, the piles of sandals outside police stations do not fairly reflect the efforts being made by many in Indonesia to find a better way of dealing with children within the justice system.

Many police officers, lawyers and judges are trying to find constructive ways of dealing with juvenile crime that help children become better citizens. Meanwhile, investments are being made in strengthening the social work systems that can both prevent children falling into crime and help those already affected by it.

A revised Juvenile Justice Law close to finalization at the House of Representatives opens the door to alternative ways of handling juvenile crime. But it still has limitations — such as the requirement for a victim’s consent for non-custodial options to be considered. This stipulation should be withdrawn to allow objective treatment of cases by professionals, and the law should require that all first-time petty offenses should be handled without incarceration.

The age of criminal responsibility — the age when a child is expected to fully understand the implications of its actions — is proposed in the draft law as 12 years, but Unicef globally recommends that this age be set at 14 years. Indonesia’s adoption of the higher threshold would set a welcome example for other nations to follow.

With the right amendments, the draft law now under review could ensure that more children will be treated like Mona and be given the chance to make amends.

We should applaud this effort to create a modern justice system for children of which Indonesians should be proud and urge those working on the details of the revised law to ensure that it meets the highest international standards. It should also be enacted effectively so that it can start working quickly to protect and guide children.

Children learn most from, and model themselves upon, those around them. The question we should be asking in the case of juvenile justice is whether we want those role models to be their families, teachers and elders in their communities or criminals in a prison cell.

Maria Ulfah Anshor is the chairwoman of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI). Angela Kearney is Unicef’s representative in Indonesia.