REPORTAGE
Since 2002, they represent an alternative structure to the prison. The closed educational centers (CEF), managed by the judicial protection of the youth (PJJ), take care of the minors aged 13 to 18 years in conflict with the law, as in Savigny-sur-Orge, in Essonne. On this 30th anniversary day of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the PJJ organizes in this last establishment, as in a hundred others throughout France, an open day. Europe 1 met several young people and supervising staff.
In Savigny-sur-Orge, twelve minors, exclusively boys aged 16 to 18, are supervised. Young often multi-recidivists for whom this CEF is an alternative to prison. "I had a month and a half of detention, and since I left, I'm here, it's always better to be here than in prison," admits one of the young people at the microphone in Europe 1.
"A whole job around everyday life"
For these minors, however, it is not detention, but residence under the constant supervision of adults, all with strict rules, says Malika Zervet, the director of the institution. "The rooms are closed from 9 to 17 hours," she describes to Europe 1, while young people in care must "take meals together, at fixed times." "It's all about everyday work".
For these young people often out of school, the placement lasts six months, time to move them away from their home environment and accompany them on a case by case basis. "The first week is weird, but after we get used to it," says a resident. "I think it brought me some stuff and maybe I'll change, but it's hard, that's not how it's done."
Avoid recurrence
Technical work, market gardening, and even "animal mediation": these miners attend different workshops to get to know each other better, for example, by observing farm animals such as rats. "The idea of the cage is to show this idea of confinement.A rat who chooses to go out will be smarter, more sociable.In contrast, a rat who chooses not to go out will not be able to develop his natural abilities" , explains to Europe 1 Victoria Sül, educator of the PJJ. The goal, she says, is to "show young people that prison and the CEF can be a passage in their lives, but do not have to be their life ... that they will make their own choice and how we can help them to make the right choices. "
Over the months, the educators prepare the exit and the reintegration of these young people with a goal, to avoid the recidivism.