The aim of this study was to investigate, from the adolescents´ point of view, their former everyday life, meanings and feelings related to the experience of incarceration, and their future prospects. Interviews were conducted with 16 adolescents committed to UNIS - a socio-educational internment unity. The interview script contained questions concerning socio-demographic information; former everyday life; meanings of incarceration; homicide circumstances; social representations of human life; future prospects. Data was submitted to thematic content analysis. Information on former everyday life reveals experiences of vulnerability, even among those who claimed it was their first infraction. The assessment made of the internment period is mostly negative and appears to be related to the exacerbation of coercive measures. Future prospects can be classified into two categories: a positive category, based on possibilities to work, to have a family, to study, to follow a religion; and a negative one characterized by guilt, fear of dying and stigma. Results indicate the necessity of implementation of attendance strategies that privilege social-educative work, in detriment of containment and punishment.