Alabama Live. The
Associated Press. 6/18/01 1:35 AM
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- A Mobile attorney will travel to Cuba with
professionals from other countries to study the island nation's juvenile justice
system.
Creola Ruffin will travel on Friday as part of People to People Ambassadors
Program, which exposes groups of professionals to the way different nations and
cultures handle social problems.
The group will spend a week examining the way Cuba, which has a socialist
political system, operates its juvenile justice system and compare it to
democratic systems in North America countries.
The program was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.
"This is basically to provide people from different countries the
opportunity to relate with each other," said Ruffin, who has served on the
American Bar Association's juvenile justice committee.
Ruffin said the group will tour law schools and police precincts. The group
will visit Havana, the capital, and Cienfuegos as well as the countryside.
Cuba was plunged into economic crisis with the collapse of the Soviet Union,
and the loss of former socialist trade partners a decade ago.
After several desperate years, the economy has been slowly recovering with
the help of foreign investment and the development of tourism as Cuba's new
primary source of hard currency.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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