Since June 2007, a medical-psychological staff (UCSA-SMPR) has been practicing in the juvenile penitentiary of the Rhône-Alpes region. A psychiatrist and a psychologist propose to review this experience as a way of investigating temporal aspects of treatment and the issues specific to this institutional setting. What are the goals of treatment ? How should we conceive of the care-providers’ position within an incarcerating structure, where treatment is supposed to be an « auxiliary » to a repressive disciplinary system ? How can we enable an elaboration of the subject’s and the institution’s acts ? These reflections are at the heart of a practice wherein professional identity is often mishandled.
Adolescence, 2013, 30, 4, 869-879.