Pastoral care for children in conflict with the law at correctional facilities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine pastoral care standards afforded to children in conflict with the law (CCL) at correctional facilities. Pastoral care is the response by caregivers to the needs of young offenders such as emotional suffering and moral injury. Pastoral care plays an essential role in the lives of the CCL. The need for pastoral care and assistance for CCL with several personal problems is growing. This study employs interpretive qualitative paradigm to investigate the experiences of the young offenders and the role played by pastoral care in correctional facilities, the content of pastoral care and the degree to which pastoral care is beneficial to rehabilitation. The study, which took place in 2020, included eighteen participants. The findings reveal that pastoral care utilise a combination of religious and lay methods of counselling and is highly favourable to rehabilitation. Further, it was found that the people offering pastoral care view rehabilitation of CCL as fundamental to correctional treatment and has been linked to the decline in reoffending. The article concludes that the serious shortage of trained individuals to offer beneficial pastoral care and counselling for (CCL).