Difficult and high-risk teens from Lodz, central Poland, are being taken on a tour of the city’s prisons and detention centers in the hope that getting the feel and taste of such facilities will keep them out of them.

The program was launched by the municipal guards in cooperation with the Labor Regiments vocational training organization. Over 80 juvenile offenders, aged between 16 and 18, are involved in the scheme.

“Entering into the prison building, they behaved like rebels. Upon leaving, they did not say anything. We left in complete silence,” says Monika Kasza, head of the Lodz Labor regiment organization, explaining that the youths were under profound impression of the strict prison rules and discipline.

 “They learned that the prison looks wholly different from what they had imagined or seen on screen”, Ms Kasza told Polska Dziennik Lodzki. 

The young offenders have a record of assaults, attacks on school mates, sometimes theft. They have learning problems and skip lessons. The city guards hope that the visits to prisons will change their attitude and are planning to launch the second edition of this correction program at the beginning of the new school year in September. (kk)