Kids Behind Bars

With more than 60,000 children under the age of 21 in the American prison system, the state of New Mexico has introduced a new and innovative approach to help rehabilitate juvenile offenders.

Running a programme known as Cambiar (the Spanish word for "change"), the J. Paul Taylor Center in Las Cruces is attempting to show that therapy, education and counselling are more effective than traditional punishment for juvenile offenders.

Staff at the centre, including guards, are trained to act as mentors, counsellors and teachers rather than correctional officers; while solitary confinement, which can cause extreme psychological, physical, and developmental harm, is prohibited.

In Kids Behind Bars, investigative journalist Soledad O'Brien goes inside the institution to find out if the new system is more effective and can help turn around the young inmates' lives.