Juvenile delinquents are sent to reform schools (RS) in accordance with court rulings and decisions of the Ministry of Education and Science.
Assigning juvenile delinquents to reform schools is a coercive measure.
Summarizing data on 1999–2002, we can draw the conclusion that the children assigned to reform schools fall into the following groups.
They are children with pedagogical and social defi-ciencies who have long-term interruptions in studies and therefore their age differs from other classmates.
In six years, nine 14 to 16 years old illiterates entered the school. When compared to the last three years the correspondence of schoolchildren’s ages to the age schoolchildren should have in a certain grade, we noted that 66% of schoolchildren are of an age, which does not correspond to the age schoolchildren should normally have in a certain grade. The majority of schoolchildren who have age differences study in Grade 7 to 9.
Division of schoolchildren according to the place of residence (academic year 2001/2002) – 40% come from rural areas and 60% from cities/towns.
The majority of schoolchildren from cities/towns are children speaking Russian. Only 10% of school-children from rural areas are non-Latvians.
At present a public opinion is being developed on reform schools being overloaded and lacking capacity to provide enough places. As a result, it has been rec-ommended to open new reform schools to improve the criminal environment. However, the real situation differs, as the number of schoolchildren in reform schools decreases every year.
cities/towns 60%
rural areas 40%
Figure 2. Schoolchildren according to the place of res-idence in 2002/2003. Source: Reform school “Strauti¿i”, 2002
orphans 4% family homes for children 2%
regular families 2%
social risk families
56%
semi-regular families
24%
deprived parents rights
12%
Figure 3. Schoolchildren according to the family status in 2002/2003.Source: Reform school “Strauti¿i”, 2002
Also, the number of schoolchildren at RS
“Nauk-‰ïni” is not more than 23.
What are the reasons?
External factors:
1. Introducing alternative punishments. Alter-native punishments are accommodated to adoles-cents – they have to do some community work for a fixed number of hours, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
2. Courts in Latvia overloaded with work.The Juvenile Delinquency Inspection pass over all the
investigation material to the court. However, it takes quite a long time and sometimes it takes up to a year for the court to resolve a case. During this period of time, the young adult has made a new and even more serious offence for which the punishment is also more serious – the AIN in Cïsis or prison.
3. It has been already mentioned – young adults can be called to account for criminal offence only when they are 14 years of age, and for minor offences they are not punished.
Internal factors:
1. In reform schools the group of schoolchildren is diverse – schoolchildren shirking school, undisciplined children, criminal offenders (both having made an offence towards property or life); they can exchange peculiar experiences, and, instead of improving and becoming useful members of the society, at reform schools young adults acquire new ways and methods they can apply in committing new offences when they return to regular life from reform schools.
2. While a child is listed at the reform school, nei-ther psychological, nor any onei-ther assistance is given to the family. As a result, the child does not receive any information about his/her family for a long time, and in turn, the family is not prepared to receive the child at home after reform school. When the time at reform school is over, the children return to the same envi-ronment they were separated from. The envienvi-ronment (in most cases it is of social risk) has not changed, and Latvians
47%
Other ethnic groups
14%
Russians 35%
Roma 4%
Figure 4. Schoolchildren according to family status in 2002/2003. Source: Reform school “Strauti¿i”, 2002
Diagnosis Year 1999 Year 2000 Year 2001
quantity percentage quantity percentage quantity percentage
1. Infected by tuberculosis 23 26% 17 22% 12 17%
2. Neurasthenia, neurosis 3945% 28 36% 35 49%
3. Enuresis 1922% 7 9% 8 11%
4. Skin diseases 23 26% 14 18% 8 11%
5. Furunculosis 34 39% 21 27% 21 29%
6. Epileptic attacks – – 2 3% 1 1.4%
7. Toxicomania 18 21% 25 32% 11 15%
8. Drug addiction 3 3% 8 10% 6 8.3%
9. F-91.2 (behavior disorders) 32 37% 50 65% 34 47.2%
10. Mentally retarded 7 8% 11 14.3% 10 13%
Table 4. Schoolchildren with health problems. Source: Reform school “Strauti¿i”
it does not take too long when the “reformed” young-ster reverts to the criminal environment.
A survey conducted at the reform school “Strauti¿i”
showed that thefts made by schoolchildren were cor-related with distorted social behavior such as unwill-ingness to study, shirking school, roaming, and con-flicts at school and home. The most-often-mentioned reason for shirking school was unwillingness to study (60%); one third of respondents stated that they had conflicts with teachers, and every fifth respondent mentioned that he was teased either because of bad study performance, or because of his clothing. 22% of boys said that they were not able to fit into another school mainly in boarding schools. Research on moti-vation for students to study detected that 60% of stu-dents had no motivation to study. Another basic rea-son for roaming was conflicts in the family: emotional conflicts because of quarrels between the parents, alcoholism, or because of the stepfather. Many of them have suffered from violence. Practically all stu-dents had underdeveloped social skills. Delinquent behavior was a form of reaction to an abnormal situa-tion that happened in an adolescent life.
Research reveals that the majority of juvenile delin-quency cases are committed by boys (90%–93%).
Therefore, the social phenomena described by the term “juvenile delinquency” in fact is crime committed by men.
Adolescent girls are involved in thefts. Legal offences done by them often are associated with the lifestyle of adolescent groups with asocial characteris-tics: roaming, provocations of conflict situations.
Reform schools work according to the same basic study program as general schools and already for the second year there is a social correction education pro-gram.
When a student enters a reform school, he/she is taken under supervision and nursing by an experi-enced educator and psychologist who carryies out complete diagnostics for each child and develops an individual social and pedagogical correction program for every student. Step by step the motivation to study and interests in studies are raised among students;
adolescents are taught to read, write and to study the
primary education program, which they have not com-pleted because of not attending school. Boys and girls are taught to trust adults. All try to solve their prob-lems. Adolescents receive medical aid necessary for treating alcoholism, drug addiction, toxicomania and other diseases. Provision of rich and balanced nutri-tion at this period of age is also very essential for the physical development of an adolescent. However, after leaving the reform school and returning to the previous environment, adolescents feel quite a hostile attitude from their ex-classmates. The type of learning offered by general schools is different from the study process at reform schools. An adolescent starts to feel discomfort, threat and the trust to own success is lost, which results in leaving school and studies forever. As a result, 30% of all adolescents return back to the streets and later find themselves in prison.
Approximately one third of students from reform schools return to the dock. After leaving reform schools, adolescents remain under the supervision of the Juvenile Delinquency Inspection only for a half of a year. If during this time adolescents are not receiv-ing the necessary help in solvreceiv-ing their social prob-lems and they have not been offered relevant edu-cational institutions, adolescents interrupt their
0 20 40 60 80 100
2002.
2001.
2000.
1999.
1998.
1997.
94 98
76 76
64
46
Figure 5. Number of students at the reform school
“Strauti¿i”. Source: Reform school “Strauti¿i”, 2002
studies and continue the same way of life they start-ed before.
At reform schools schoolchildren develop a variety of professional working skills (for example, locksmith, plumber, ceramist, gardener, etc.), which give them direction for choosing a future profession. In the aca-demic year 2000/2001, there were only two voca-tional schools admitting schoolchildren with a sev-enth-grade education and, in addition to general education, giving an opportunity to learn a profes-sion.
According to information submitted by educational institutions, in the academic year 1999/2000, only 11 districts of Latvia had schools with pedagogical cor-rection classes, and the majority of those schools were located either in regional centres or in Riga. The number of correction classes increased during the academic year 2001/2002. At present, schools in 20 administrative districts of Latvia have pedagogical correction classes.
The task for a pedagogical correction class is to provide pedagogically social conditions for obtaining the mandatory basic education and ensuring every student the most appropriate kind of pedagogical and/or social aid, which would give the best results for a student in his/her study process and development.
Which are the factors impeding the pedagogi-cal correction process at schools?
•Insufficient financing from the government and local authorities for obtaining study materials, for organizing extramural work, and for maintaining the classrooms;
•Irresponsibility from parents in solving social issues and issues related to education of children;
•Inappropriate professional qualifications of educa-tors and inappropriate qualification for teaching in pedagogical correction classes;
•Insufficient help on a regular basis and in time from a social educator, social worker from the local authority, psychologist in education and speech therapist working with students and their parents;
•Deputy principals and educators have insufficient experience working with pedagogical correction education programs;
•Insufficient information and exchange of experi-ence between educational institutions;
•Lack of experience for working in combined classes.
It is important to mention that some adults are not able to adapt to the new social order. They are not able to overcome the consumer complex, and they are not ready to live independently in the constantly changing environment where individuals must take full responsibility for their success and failure.
Escape from reality in a form of depression, apathy or idleness, and arguments against the government show an attitude transferred from parents to children.
A growing number of individuals in need of social aid have emerged as a result of such “upbringing”, and today they intensively reproduce (the birth-rate in risk families has a trend to increase, while in regular fami-lies the birth-rate decreases).
Improvement of the educational process at school is one solution. Implementation of the Pedagogical Correction Education Program has started; it has been adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science on May 3, 2000 based on Instruction No. 295. Success-ful introduction of the program in schools depends not only on school management, but mainly on the local authorities and their possibilities and interest in taking part in financing the pedagogical correction education program (providing schoolchildren with textbooks, compilations of games for personal devel-opment and exercises, exercise-books and, if neces-sary, providing students with clothing and foot-wear, free lunches and for purchasing audio and video tech-nology for the school).