Second Chance! A national network of ex-inmates of juvenile training schools

Tatsushi Saimon (President; ex-inmate of JTS )Hiroshi Tsutomi (Founder: ex-worker at JTS and currently Professor of University of Shizuoka)

Second Chance! A national network of ex-inmates of juvenile training schools

Second Chance! is an association of ex-inmates of juvenile training schools who want to lead a straight life, supporting and developing each other as peers. Not only ex-inmates but also professionals, volunteers, university students and others work together for the same purpose. The association started as a result of meeting of Tatsushi Saimon as a student and Hiroshi Tsutomi as an teacher at a university.

Ex-inmates who just want to lead a straight life can attend our meeting. We do not care what he/she has done before.Second Chance! has a policy of honesty, equality, and respect. If you are brave enough to get rid of criminal way of life, you can build a new human relationship.

Our three major activities:

Meetings, Camps, and Visits to JTSs

Meetings are occasions in which a young ex-inmate just released from a JTS can meet grown-up working ex-inmates and local supporters. Here in meetings, participants feel relaxed and do not need to behave neither as a bad guy nor as a good guy. We further relate to each other by dialogues, BBQ parties, sports events and other fun events.

Various activities

In 1997, a mutual-help organization of ex-criminals called KRIS was established in Sweden. The founders are several ex-criminals including Christer Karlsson who had spent more then 30 years in prison.

Christer had undergone various rehabilitation programs in prison to no avail and repeated offending.

Then he thought, “We can rehabilitate ourselves on our own”, and started with his friends after the release from prison.

History of Second Chance!

”KRIS is a sober gang, like a big family.” (Christer)

Once I decided to throw away the bad, I became lonely. Nobody needed me.

Second Chance! wants to make a society in which a person who wants to get rid of a criminal way of life and lead a straight life will not become lonely and can meet more peers.

Rehabilitation does not mean a life without a failure, but a life with belief and hope that a person can recover even after many failures and live honestly.

Together with my buddies who need me.