TPO 38: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Leadership comes naturally: one cannot learn to be a leader. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. v.2

It is true that ex-prisoners can become normal, productive members of society. I completely agree with the idea that allowing such people to speak to teenagers about their experiences is the best way to discourage them from breaking the law. Teenagers often accept advice from someone who can speak from experience. Reformed offenders can not only tell young people about how they became involved in crime, but also the dangers of a criminal lifestyle, and what life in prison is really like. They can also dispel any ideas that teenagers may have about criminals leading glamorous lives. While adolescents are often indifferent to the guidance given by older people, I imagine that most of them would be extremely keen to hear the stories of an ex-offender. The vivid and perhaps shocking nature of these stories may have a powerful impact. The alternatives to using reformed criminals to educate teenagers about crime would be much less effective. One option would be for police officers to visit schools and talk to young people. This could be useful in terms of informing teens about what happens to lawbreakers when they are caught, but young people are often reluctant to take advice from figures of authority. Another option is to build a school curriculum in such way that everybody will be imposed to follow rules and the results of not obeying rules. For example, students should get punished if they do not follow regulations of school uniform. In conclusion, I support the view that people who have turned their lives around after serving a prison sentence and some other alternatives I suggested could help to deter teenagers from committing crimes.