Guided prison tours and the art of coercion - What are the best strategies to deter young offenders from committing further crimes?

The other day I was watching a very interesting documentary about a project in Hamburg, Germany. Copying the approach of taking real alcoholics to schools to share their personal stories, a group of social workers and psychologists recruited a small team of ex-convicts and trained them in communication skills, showing them how to be active listeners and to learn the art of coercion.

Each of them was put in charge of a group of young offenders. They organized guided prison tours and at the end of each tour there was a 3-hour meeting in a room where the young offenders met several senior inmates. All of them had once been young offenders themselves committing the same crimes as their visitors like snatch thefts, pickpocketing, breaking into cars, vandalism, shoplifting before moving on to more serious crimes.

The young offenders could easily identify themselves with the senior inmates and realized they were headed toward the same career path. The inmates described at length how it was to be in prison for several years. Some struggled to hold back tears. The facilitators led the Q&A sessions and following discussions. One task was to identify the reasons leading to all the crimes. Yes, my father beat me too, but… and so forth. At school this and that happened…

There are several trouble hotspots in Hamburg and the project began in only one particular district. Two years after the project kicked off, statistics clearly show a significant decline in juvenile delinquency in this district. Maybe there are other reasons as well, but I found this amazing.

What is your opinion? What other strategies do work and which don’t? I’ve also heard about a project in Berlin using “district counselors” visiting parents regularly to help them improve their parenting skills. Some people suggest tightening the laws is key. Others want video cameras installed everywhere. What are the best strategies to deter young offenders? Any interesting ideas?