Since 2012, the treatment home in Västernorrland has offered a way out for young drug addicts who need support to get out of crime.
The home receives young boys aged 17 to 23 years.
Several come directly from the big cities and gang crime.
They have been placed at home with the support of LVU, LVM or the Social Services Act.
Others are there on contract care.
“They are not monsters”
What they have in common is that they have been given a chance to get out of a destructive life pattern.
Several have been in treatment before and have experience of serious crime.
Several tell of weapons and shootings.
- The guys who are here are the ones we read about in the newspapers - but they are not monsters.
Of course, they will take the consequences of their crimes, but the debate right now is very one-sided and there are few who highlight treatment as part of the solution, says Patrik af Jochnick Karlsson.
Every third dies
A care place in the treatment home costs SEK 1,850 per day, compared with just over 3,200 in the prison service.
If necessary, the treatment period begins with detoxification from drug abuse.
- It is generally said that a third will be able to break with their old life.
One third return to crime and one third die, says treatment assistant Mattias Nordlöf.
Important to break with his old life
Three plus three months of treatment is recommended.
The goal is to persuade the young clients to physically break with their old lives and start over elsewhere.
- There is a way out of gang crime but it is about giving yourself time.
We have discovered that many people come here for the sake of their mother or to reassure their family, but it is extremely important that they understand that it is they themselves who are most important.
Several have chosen to stay in Västernorrland after the treatment.
In the treatment method, there is an opportunity to be locked out into a normal Svensson life with your own home and job.