Revista de Știinţe Educaţiei (Dec 2021)
The role of education in the social reintegration of young offenders and the influence of COVID19 pandemic period
Abstract
The number of young people around the world, sanctioned with an educational measure depriving them of their liberty is increasing, which is also found in the statistics of educational centers in Romania. Custodial measures are those which punish juvenile offenders by depriving them of their liberty after they have been convicted of an offense. By being interned in the center, they are prevented from committing new offenses and, at least in theory, are allowed to be rehabilitated during the period of internment. In the custodial environment, education for minors and young people has been and remains different in many ways from that in the community. In this, beyond the architecture of the custodial environment, the profile of this type of criminals obviously has a significant role. In this paper, we aimed to highlight the particularities of education for minors and young people in the custody environment in general and in educational centers in Romania in particular, and how the pandemic period COVID19 influences programs in educational centers. 27 interviews were applied to professionals from two educational centers in Romania (Buziaş Educational Center and Târgu Ocna Educational Center). The interview guide for professionals and management staff totaled 22 questions. In this paper, we have focused only on the questions that refer to the social reintegration of minors and young people interned in the centers. Our analysis shows us that young offenders face several issues specific to custodial environments to which are added the restrictions imposed by the pandemic period. This restriction takes on specific forms, adapted to the custodial environment. Educators, psychologists, and schoolteachers can play an important role together with parents in social reintegration and defining and establishing their life projects.
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