Rare input about how conditions are in Denmark

[Covergaard]

On Denmark Radio number one - one of our televisions stations you can see a rare documentary about one of our three "Supermax prisons" for youth under 18.

The program is called "DR1 Dokumentaren - børn bag tremmer" (DR1 documentary - children behind bars).

Here is a link to the streaming interface.



Instructions:

1) Click Start dr.dk tv - a new window opens
2) Click on Programmer
3) Scroll down until you can click on DR1 Dokumentaren - børn bag tremmer and click it.
4) Click Se program and you are on.

The children all someone, who are considered extremely dangerous and are between 15 to 18 years of age. They are all convicted for various things like extreme violence, car-stealing include high speed chase or murder.

It is only in Danish by you can see how different our environments are in such facilities compared to your juvenile jails.

The program brought some criticism on. Not due to the treatment but to the lack of the aftercare program, which is non-existing if the person is released when he or she is adult, because they fall in a gab between the juvenile prison system and the adult prison system.

Another note is that it is the exact same facility where a girl managed to kill herself regardless of the - if you take into consideration that it is going on in Denmark - intense security.

[Anonymous]

On Denmark Radio number one - one of our televisions stations you can see a rare documentary about one of our three "Supermax prisons" for youth under 18.

The program is called "DR1 Dokumentaren - børn bag tremmer" (DR1 documentary - children behind bars).

Here is a link to the streaming interface.



Instructions:

1) Click Start dr.dk tv - a new window opens
2) Click on Programmer
3) Scroll down until you can click on DR1 Dokumentaren - børn bag tremmer and click it.
4) Click Se program and you are on.

The children all someone, who are considered extremely dangerous and are between 15 to 18 years of age. They are all convicted for various things like extreme violence, car-stealing include high speed chase or murder.

It is only in Danish by you can see how different our environments are in such facilities compared to your juvenile jails.

The program brought some criticism on. Not due to the treatment but to the lack of the aftercare program, which is non-existing if the person is released when he or she is adult, because they fall in a gab between the juvenile prison system and the adult prison system.

Another note is that it is the exact same facility where a girl managed to kill herself regardless of the - if you take into consideration that it is going on in Denmark - intense security.

Yes, of course the concern is keeping kids from killing themselves, as opposed to stopping the conditions that make them want to commit suicide.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like maybe the concern is also to keep kids from killing other people.

[Covergaard]

Yes, of course the concern is keeping kids from killing themselves, as opposed to stopping the conditions that make them want to commit suicide.

First of all, they are convicted in a court of law. They have to be kept somewhere in a secure environment.

We have a problem right now. The problem is lack of responsibility by the politician in the city halls.

When a person is arrested by the police and a judge has decided that they can not be free until the trial is over, then the State pays for their stay in a secure facility. But once the verdict is handed out the city hall has to decide where the offender has to serve time. Some cities has to be fined before they come into action. That takes up costly space and sometimes even bank robbers are let loose because there is no space in a juvenile facility and it is forbidden to detain them in an adult facility. Cash management is hurting these young people, who should be guided into a facility where they could serve time AND learn some skills.

Then when they are release the easies way to prevent new crime is to give them a job and a small room if they can not live with their family. The root to all evil is unemployment. There are a lot of jobs to get in Denmark. In fact we have a shortage of manpower.

But once again they are let down. They have to adjust over time to a life as a free person. The city hall should have brought them home to a small room not bigger than a cell which is locked by the night and a job during the day (combined with a GPS-bracelet). Once they have served time fully, the lock and the GPS-bracelet is removed and they continue in their job until they themselves decide what to do with their future.

You have a similar case in Texas where Michael Perry is on deathrow. He started a life of crime after being kicked out of Casa by the Sea with no ID and it did cost innocent lives. He should have been marched down to the nearest burger joint and put into action, given a small room with a bed and a mentor, who could sit and listen to him. Those lives he took could have been saved.