A trial scheme has shown that offering youth remanded in custody a chance at a job or an education works, and may help them quit a life of crime.

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Youths can quit gangs

02. mar. 2010 09.54 English

Young people remanded in custody often leave prison even more adept at their criminal activities.

That's why Copenhagen municipality, along with Copenhagen Prisons, wants to offer jobs or education to 200 detained youths between the ages of 18 and 24.

And experience from a trial scheme last fall shows that change is possible.

20 young detainees were, while still in prison, offered an intensive talk on how they could get get out of crime and away from their gangland background.

Seven of them have now been released, and after their release, six of them showed up in a job centre of their own accord, and are now working or in job activation, or are under education.

- This proves that if you offer them opportunity, young people really want to change their path in life, says head of employment with the Copenhagen Prisons, Trine Ravn.

Translated by Martin Lamberth