852. Den Maritime Base

The idea sounds fine. Putting youth out on a ship so they can skip possible drug use. The execution far from fine. Lacking teachers and being confined in a foreign harbor where the children can go into town unaccompanied. According to a TV2 documentary in the Danish TV2, it did not take very long time before the teenagers connected with a local drug-dealer so they could smoke weed almost every day.

We are talking about an arrangement which put the taxpayers back some 39,800 dollars per student.

And we are not even talking about the security risk a teenager alone in another part of the world would risk. Fact is that some of the teenagers came back without proper schooling which they were promised and it is a huge setback for their future. That is not something which is fun for the teenager when reaching adulthood and face the reality of life without proper career due to lack of education.

Sources:

• Brugte 247.422 kroner på at sende utilpasset elev til Caribien: – De ture skal simpelthen holde op (TV2 News – in Danish language)
• Young criminals have been sent on Caribbean cruises in an attempt to reform their behaviour (The Daily Telegraph)
• Skipper: Derfor skal unge kriminelle på sejltur til Caribien (Jydske Vestkysten – in Danish language)
• Kommune sendte kriminelle unge til Caribien: ‘Vi røg hash af kedsomhed’ (BT)