Encouraging students to read can be tough work in Thailand - and getting those categorised as delinquents to do this is surely harder still.
Many would assume such "hard heads" would simply not be interested.
However, one remand home has proved it is possible to persuade some young people normally opposed to educational activities, that reading can, in fact, help them.
At Kanchanaphisek Remand Home in Nakhon Pathom, young inmates not only read books and newspapers - often with crime reports, they watch movies presenting violence and social problems and note down summaries, their opinions, solutions and even how people can avoid the kind of events described in the papers.
Boards and walls in the home's library are covered with papers, many written by hand, proving the youths' enthusiasm for such ideas.
Some 15 inmates have already become writers who've passed their experiences on to others through books they have written, which have been on the shelves for the past few months.
"They were considered losers in a formal education system that kept telling them they were not good students," said Ticha na Nakorn, the home's director, who succeeded in stirring the delinquents' interest in reading.
"At schools, they'd been blocked by teachers making inflexible judgements that are either 'right' or 'wrong'. They were afraid to express what they really thought. By contrast, youths at this home are now encouraged to write their opinions towards the stories or articles they read. We don't block their opinions by saying 'This is wrong or your writing is bad'," Ticha said. The students were also able to learn to improve when comparing their efforts with that by other inmates.
The common focus of their writing is to draw attention to stories mostly about people who have made critical mistakes in their lives, not unlike their own. Ticha asks them to analyse the effects of these mistakes and learn to improve their own behaviour. Better writing skills come from this.
Tung, a 20-year-old inmate, said after writing down his opinions, he often applied them to himself to learn the effects bad actions could have on people. "It changed me from being a student who ignores reading and writing to a person who reads almost everyday."
Tung was ranked among the top four inmates who borrow books most frequently from the home's library.
A former inmate, Kob, 22, said his communication skills were now better. "Not only my writing and reading skills, but also my speaking skills," he said.
He now works for Thai Health Promotion Foundation as a coordinating assistant.
