The convicts held a meeting with students, sharing their experience in the field of Abaya

     

To prevent youth crime and clarify the consequences of illegal actions, the Department of Criminal Justice for the Abai region, together with Roman Temirgazin, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, held a Peer-to-Peer teleconference with students of Alikhan Bokeikhan University.

           During the teleconference, the convicts openly shared their life stories and the mistakes that led them to the crime.

         — I spent my childhood in an orphanage. I hardly remember my parents. I always lacked warmth and support, and when I left the orphanage, I looked for them in an environment that turned out to be completely different. We chose the easy and wrong ways. That's what brought me here in the end. If I had thought about the future then, I would be sitting in lectures now, not behind barbed wire," said the 23-year-old convict, who is serving a four-year and seven-month sentence for theft.

           A 25-year-old convict serving a sentence in a medium-security facility for drug distribution also shared his story.:

          — I had a family — a wife and a young daughter, but financial difficulties pushed me to earn criminal money. I distributed narcotic drugs and received seven years in prison. Now I understand what a huge price I paid. No amount of fast money is worth a ruined life.

            Gulmira Kolmakova, senior inspector of the Department of educational and socio-psychological work among prisoners of the DUIS in the Abai region, stressed that the Peer—to-Peer format is an effective prevention tool. When young people hear real stories rather than theoretical warnings, they become more aware of the consequences of illegal actions.