difficult child just called again. He got to make a call tonight because they let him out of medication-lock today. His behavior counselor called today to tell me that the incident happened. (No rush on that I guess.
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So I got more details on what happened. difficult child is not in a gang but apparently a gang member was "ordered" to jump difficult child in order to try to move up in the ranks. They really have a major gang problem there. Anyway, the guy hit difficult child in the face, just above his eye, and then slammed his face into a wall in the showers. difficult child blacked out, then came to and layed into the guy until staff pulled difficult child off and threw him against a wall. Fortunately, the staff knew that difficult child was jumped by a gang member so the guy was ordered a min. of 30 days in special lock-up and was the one charged. difficult child's eye did not respond to the little flashlight when he was being checked by a nurse that night so that's when they took him to the ER. He said he has a pretty major black eye but is ok, other than some head aches. I told him to make sure that he reports this to the medication staff and any other change- like worse eyesight (he already wears glasses).
difficult child said the boy who did this had already hit another boy in lock-up. It sounds like maybe we don't need to worry about the other boy coming back to difficult child's unit at some point- I think he might be too stupid to ever get himself out of trouble. But difficult child said there had been about 7 gang related fights this week and they are considering it a war between two gangs from different area codes in our state now. I'm really hoping that difficult child stays out of this and doesn't try to retaliate by joining one of these gangs to fight against the one that caused this incident.
He's writing a letter to the director of the place to request a release one month earlier. He says it is very rare, but possible. They are crowded and budget cuts just forced at least one Department of Juvenile Justice facility to close so some of those boys will be moved to the facility difficult child is in. That might spur a few early releases and he's got about the best behavior record of anyone in there. I guess we'll see. The school loves him and the staff on his unit say they never have a problem with him- he just needs put in his place occasionally- I figure that's to be expected, especially from my difficult child. His behavior counselor used to be the one that sounded hardest on him but today she told me that he's doing great for her. She's considered his CM in there and makes determinations for most things pertaining to difficult child and she leads the anger management course that he's required to complete. (She's not a mental health person, he has another therapist for therapy.) But, if the director was willing to consider a five month early release instead of a four-month which was listed for good behavior, I'm sure she would check with all these "heads" of the different areas. Please keep fingers crossed on this. Even if difficult child doesn't come home, it would be nice if he got out a few days before his b-day instead of a month after it and 2 months after Christmas.
I know it's unlikely he'll get it approved. I read meeting minutes from previous General Assembly meetings and a few agencies were requesting and suggesting that inmates, particularly juveniles, be allowed a little more early-release time (if they've had good behavior) due to budget issues and the ineffectiveness of keeping them longer and due to the damage it does on the family unit to keep them incarcerated, but the General Assembly refused it and said No. However, difficult child was not committed for a time determined by the judge, which is an option here, he was committed with Department of Juvenile Justice choosing how long to keep him. So who knows. There is a big disagreement though between these reps from various agencies about things like "the juvenile needs to detach from the family" vs "detachment for young offenders does more damage and increases likelihood of re-offending".
I'm glad he seems to be doing ok now. Big hugs to him. Please give him our board auntie love.
