Employee about young criminals at Sis: One in ten wants to change

Day coordinator Jonny has a few things he wants you to know about Sis homes.

The first is that life behind the walls is not what you think.

The second is that the challenges for the staff are greater than you can imagine.

– Many inmates just want to serve the time, he says.

Few have seen a Sis home from the inside. But the more ventilate opinions about how the business works. Or perhaps rather how it doesn’t work.

In the debate, the locked facilities for young people who have fallen into addiction or crime are often described as nurseries for criminals. The critics believe that they are just stops on the way up the gang hierarchy.

To “breast a four to become a centurion”, is a well-known description of the maximum sentence of four years in closed youth care that usually results when teenagers are convicted of murder or other serious violent crimes.

“Ask the guys about their dreams”

Jonny, who for security reasons does not want to give his last name, has for 20 years worked at the Sis home where Lukas is admitted. He believes that the reality is far from the picture that the debaters on social media paint.

– We do not run leisure farms. We have our rules and the inmates must follow them, he says.

But Jonny emphasizes at the same time that it is one thing to do as the staff say inside the facility’s walls. When the sentence is served, the young people often return to their old environments. There they meet the same people, dangers and temptations that got them stuck in the first place.

– When it comes to young people who are in the gang environment, they also experience a threat from older criminals if they choose to break. That makes it even more difficult.

– If you’re going to make it, you have to want to change, and unfortunately there aren’t that many who really want to.

How many in here who are convicted of crimes want to change their lives for real, do you think?

– I have not done any scientific research on it. But based on my experience, I would say that it is about ten percent.

What do you think that there are so few?

– It is clear that it is sad if young people do not take advantage of the opportunities for, for example, education that exist. But I focus very much on building relationships and trust. That is our most important task.

And sometimes Jonny feels that a conversation can actually be a push in a new direction.

– I usually ask the guys what they dream about. Then they often answer that they want to buy a house and start a family. Then I ask how they will be able to achieve it by the way they live now. I think some realize that it won’t work.

Has two important missions

That there are incidents at the Sis homes is inevitable, says Jonny.

– We deal with young people who have been convicted of serious crimes. The only way to completely avoid things happening would be to never let the inmates go out and stop all their communication with the outside world. I don’t think that would be good.

Here, he sees the business’s dual tasks as absolutely central. The convicted person who is placed at Sis must serve a sentence, but at the same time receive help to become a functioning citizen of society.

– It would be devastating if we only focused on one part.

Have you ever been scared at work?

– No, then I wouldn’t be able to carry out my mission. If something happens here, I always have the option to call for reinforcements. I can feel more insecure when I’m out and about.

THE FACT here is Sis

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