I'm sorry for your son. As a non-American, I guess the word "min" means minority ?

Well, the situation is the same in France - actually we don't have work camps in France, but we have built "des centres fermés pour mineurs" = prisons for minors (under 18). They're not allowed to work. They had been closed up 15 years ago but now they're reoponed. It shows how bad our society goes. In France, there is one very famous quote that says : "you know how the Democracy of one country is doing by looking into its jail system" - well the result is catastrophic - prisons are overcrowded, and inmates don't get sufficient help, monitoring,therapy, formations, teaching.. They lack of everything. No wonder why, once they're out, more than 60% go back to jail :-)

Whereas in Holland, they're closing down prisons ! Yes - because once a person is incarcerated, he receives all the help he needs, he learns a job, gets an education degree, etc. and the result is simple but true : less than (I think, I've seen it on TV a week ago) 15% go back to jail - the others GET A JOB, A LIFE and are NO LONGER A THREAT TO SOCIETY which should be the goal for emprisonment. In France, last week a pedophile made the headlines, because he had spent more than 25 years in jail and NEVER got any therapy - of course, the day he got out he abused a little boy. He had asked again and again to get a therapy, but just a few prisons in France have therapists.

Rehabilitation in Holland - they know that it may cost them a lot in the beginning, but when you know the price of one inmate per year, and you see the result, we should think it twice - that should make US think .. but now, in France we send more and more people to jail for longer periods and nothing is done for their return into society.

Well, Peanut - you're right, we as PP are (hopefully) helping a few out there