"At Els Til·lers they help us learn how to behave in society"
There are many surprising details about Alek (fictitious name): his liveliness, his determination, his intelligence, his ability and need to express himself, despite the fact that when he arrived at the Therapeutic Unit of the Els Til·lers Educational Center he did not speak a word of Spanish, and, above all, what he tells us and how he tells it, being only 20 years old.
“Society often judges young people like us who are incarcerated without understanding all the pain and hardships we’ve endured to get here,” she explains. Hers is a painful story marked by migration, an inability to adapt to the world, Asperger’s syndrome and psychosis that went undiagnosed and untreated for a long time, and an absent mother.
“No one explains to children that parents can fail. No one explained it to me. On the contrary, all you’re told is that you have to value your parents, do everything they say, and pretend they’re perfect, but the reality is that some parents aren’t good parents and can fail you. Since a child doesn’t know that’s possible, they start to think the problem lies with them,” Alek reflects. “No one explained to me that if my mother was absent, I had rights. That I had the right to report it to social services to receive help.”
Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Alek didn't understand what was happening to him, why life was so difficult. He suffered, but no one noticed. "I had a different way of seeing the world, but no one understood, until I finally snapped." He found himself friendless and spending most of his time locked in his room, where he gave free rein to his own world, creating imaginary stories as a way to escape the pain. "Many people might not understand, but I like being locked in my room, protected. To the point that I lock the door so no one can come in because otherwise I feel insecure. If the door is even slightly open, it makes me feel insecure, uncomfortable, unpleasant," he explains. He became socially isolated, unable to communicate with other teenagers because he didn't speak Spanish. His problems went undetected at home and at school, despite his daily anxiety attacks and psychotic symptoms. "I guess I'm one of these 'glitches' in the social system, where nobody notices anything and, when it explodes, they wonder why it happened. Ignoring all the symptoms," Alek thinks.
Rehabilitation as a goal
Alek arrived at the Therapeutic Unit of the Els Til·lers Educational Center in 2019 after a period in various juvenile detention centers where he struggled to adapt. Els Til·lers provides care for minors and young adults with severe mental disorders and delinquent behavior, aiming to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society and the community.
Spiritual care in mental health in juvenile justice
“In the centers I was in before coming here, the people who wanted to help me did so with things they thought ‘normal’ people needed, but it didn’t work for me,” he tells us. At the Els Til·lers Therapeutic Unit, however, he has been able to redirect his life, channeling the restrictive interests typical of Asperger’s, which he focuses on physics, and has learned strategies that help him control his attitudes through therapy and educational and sports activities.
Community engagement program for incarcerated youth
“At first, you see it as a challenge. You think the professionals are there to control you, that they’re watchful, that they’re the enemy. When you arrive here, you don’t know the rules. You break them and you don’t understand why you’re being reprimanded; you have this feeling that everyone is against you,” she explains. She affirms that it’s not easy to advise someone arriving at the center on how to act, but rather, in the face of these conflicts, she believes you simply have to “let time pass and allow yourself to be helped,” that everything improves, and with time you understand the reasons behind things.
“When you arrive here, the first thing you think about is the word ‘prison’ and everything it implies, thinking that there’s danger here, that you have to defend your honor, command respect, that people will fear you,” Alek explains, “but the Therapeutic Unit has nothing to do with that; it’s an educational and therapeutic center. What they do here is try to integrate us into society, find ways to prevent us from hurting anyone, from destroying things… They help us learn how to behave in society so that we are treated well and so that we treat others well.”
Alek has a good relationship with the team of professionals he works with every day. "The educators talk to us a lot, explain things to us, and help us find things we might need with our studies, emotional advice, or life advice. It's a normal relationship between people. People who try to help others; that's their goal," he says.
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