The course consisted of five classes, which included sessions on taking responsibility, reconciliation, forgiveness and making acts of restitution.  Both the prison administration and the PF facilitators agreed that the programme was very effective, but more sessions would have been helpful.

Hearing participating victims tell their story made a deep impact on the youths, who all acknowledged that their behaviour created victims as well.  One of the participating prisoners said, “It is strange to realise that I also made victims in my own family; my parents, my siblings.  From now on I will change my behaviour, also for the sake of my own family.” 

At the in-prison church service on the following Sunday, one of the prisoners participating shared his experience in the STP with his fellow congregants, giving them the details on all that he had learned.  This pilot programme went so well that “the Youth Prison wants us to develop a follow-up course and repeat the current course,” says Esther Klaassen, staff member of PF Netherlands.

January 2008

This article first appeared in the January 2008 issue of Prison Fellowship International's Global Link.