Wednesday June 1 2005: I was up early today, ready to go visit the Viva Rio project Sob-Medida, two hours from Rio in the mid-sized city of Resende. The project name translates to “Beyond Measure,” a play on words for the Juvenile Justice mentality here: there are no sentences, there are socio-educational measures. Juveniles aren’t criminals, they are in conflict with the law and thus can not to be marked as criminal by nature. All of this is part of a very thorough and well thought out law based on UN suggestions that puts rehabilitating (as opposed to punishing) the child as the goal of the juvenile justice system. Its not always so in practice though.

Sob Medida is based on the Fight for Peace methodology of offering sports and education to adolescents to get them on the right track. In this case, the project is meant to be an alternative to a the socio-educational measure of semi-liberty, essentially a half-way house for juvenile offenders after detention. Too many of the kids I spoke to, in and out of this program, said that detention is a hard life, with little educational value. Several spoke about the challenges afterwards of beating the stigma of a criminal getting a job and getting on with life.

Learning a craft gets young men out of crime.

This afternoon, I watched 11 14-19 year olds make beaded necklaces and share stories about their past. Who would have thought ex-robbers would be, not just willing, but eager to make beaded key chain lizards? It reminds us that, as the law claims, treating them as children can actually work. They seemed to just want a chance that many didn’t feel they had before, even if it is learning a craft that they might be able to use like making jewelry and key chains. I got in on the beading action but only ended up with a half-finished red Jacaré lizard tail. I left it for one of the boys to finish. I beaded slower than them, but it was a stellar design if I do say so myself.

Afterwards, several of them told me the best part of the program is the citizenship classes. One seventeen year old said, “We learn how to find jobs, how to dress. Like what clothes to wear for a job so you don’t look like a mess.” Nobody had ever told him this before.

Another said, “They are good because we get to debate, get to talk about real things.” He said he doesn’t have that anywhere else, not at home, nor at school. So he comes to the project instead. Nobody was there because they had to, because it was a sentence. They were there because they want to be. It was nice to see.