Educating for justice during custody: an irreconcilable combination

The Portuguese juvenile justice system aims to educate for justice, with a view to reintegrate young people in society when they commit criminal offenses, by showing them the need to be educated. But what does educating mean and, more specifically, what does Educating for Justice mean? While educating consists in helping to grow, to develop skills in a harmonious way, and building personality Educating for Justice assumes a directed development towards respect for the essential values of the community, thus potentiating a dignified and responsible integration in society. But how can we educate a young person to respect community values? How can we prepare this young person to be integrated in society? How do we educate in a way that respects cultural differences and the individuality of a person who is developing his/her personality? Is it possible to educate by restricting rights? And is that restriction legitimate? In what way? Placement in an Education al Centre is the most severe, the ultima ratio of measures intended for the most problematic situations. This measure, especially in the form of the most severe custodial regime (closed system, which entails the greatest restriction of rights), puts us before a paradox: is it possible to educate for full social integration, for freedom, and for responsibility, by restricting the freedom and temporarily removing the young person from that same society? How to prepare a young person to face society following a removal from it? And how should a proper transition between life in a closed centre and life in an open society be prepared? These are some key dilemmas for which I will try to offer evidence-based and research-supported answers.