Groups of “slightest opportunities”: About the organisation and planning of educational work in juvenile detention centres

Abstract

The article focuses on the organisation of educational work within the context of juvenile detention centres. By presenting the specificity and individuality of this institution compared to other rehabilitation centres, the difficulties and tasks faced by social rehabilitation educators were characterised. Based on (auto)ethnographic observations, the main part of the article discusses three key problem areas related to the dynamics and specificity of the functioning of the so-called “shelter groups”. The final conclusions suggest that working with this group, according to the other dimensions of work with minors, not only requires specific predispositions from the educator, but is also burdened with a specific dimension of “inevitable failures”.