49 Impotence is a common reaction to living conditions like this, to the constant fear of violence and the sense of defenselessness. The only alternative that inmates had was to watch and wait, unable to respond. This undermines their psychological equilibrium and adversely affects other functions such as the able to process knowledge and use reason; it also affects the ability to concentrate and study. The environment that the children who lived at the Center described was a breeding ground for emotional disorders. The children had to draw upon all their mental energy to prevent a mental breakdown. This environment “breeds psychopaths.” It was a violent world that instructed these children in the ways of violence. No other environment was offered to them where they might have experienced something other than violence. Experiences of this kind are not forgotten, as they linger in one’s memory forever. This situation can be described as one of protracted and complex trauma. In other words, this was not a single episode; it was multiple traumatic events. They lived in terror. Their situation could best be likened to “concentration camps or societies at war, where violence and the danger of violence are ever-present, and the children live in fear that they might be attacked at any time.” It is logical to assume that this protracted and complex traumatic condition affected all the juveniles who spent any time at the Center. The traumatic consequences of this situation may or may not have been a factor contributing to the recidivism of some of these children, depending on what was available to them and what their environment outside prison was like. Furthermore, “having no way to release these strong emotions,” the children became more violent with one another. The guards at the Center did nothing these outbreaks of violence among the juveniles. On the contrary, they punished them severely by taking them to the “torture chamber.” When children have no one to hear their problems, two scenarios ensue: episodes of violence increase among the inmates; a sense of solidarity is built up among them. The children who were in the fire have been affected, as they came face-to-face with death. The most serious after-effect is their physical scarring, which lowers their self-esteem. They worry about having problems establishing relationships with members of the opposite sex, problems in their lives, or even whether they’ll be able to marry. All the memories and all the traumatic events are indelibly impressed upon their memories and resurface repeatedly, in a variety of situations. One such situation is when they go to sleep. One of the children said the following: “I can’t sleep because when I close my eyes I see the flames, I hear the screams of the children and I can’t sleep; I have to open my eyes to drive away all these images.” Criminal behavior can be modified, which is what the goal of re-education centers must be. In theory, the child and adolescent have to be provided with all the means to enable them to re-learn their behaviors and become functioning members of society. Inasmuch as they are under the protection of the State, the latter is responsible for their mental health. Rehabilitation centers are supposed to provide a healthy environment. Rehabilitation implies, inter alia, re-education programs where the children are motivated to learn and to go to school, and where children have an open space. The State must make it possible for the child to develop a life plan suited to his inclinations and aspirations.