This paper brings up reflections from a qualitative survey conducted among teachers and social workers dedicated to the education of teenagers in custody homes. It points out their feelings, responsibilities, and contributions drawn from their practices. The interviewees are experiencing a paradoxical time concurrently marked by stagnation and the lack of means and perspectives toward transformation. The lack of incentive, investments, and public policies specific to what they do is fragmenting their work, which is significantly dissociated from school, family, and the community in which these teenagers are inserted. This experience shows that FEBEM (State Foundation for the Welfare of Minors) and the Judicial Power should forsake the former idea of punishment, discipline, and repression, and understand the need to invest in school and socio-educational measures as instruments with an eminently pedagogic character.
Teacher work; Juvenile delinquents; Custody homes