I'm anxious to watch this and see how it stacks up with the program we had where I used to work. I recently retired after spending the last 24 years working in a Close Security mens' State prison. We used to do this about once a month and it was VERY effective but they ended up discontinuing the program because the lawyers were afraid of liability issues, etc. It's a shame too because it really seemed to get to them where sometimes nothing else did. The groups of kids referred to us came on buses and spent one whole day with us. Some were referred by the courts, some were from several wilderness programs in the area, some from various juvenile facilities - all were considered to be "at risk" kids. Some were very cocky and arrogant because they had been in juvenile facilities and considered themselves to be tough, but some were afraid to even get out of the bus in the parking lot! The "tough" ones soon learned that being in the "big boy jail" is nothing like being in "juvy"!
They would take them into the conference room and give them a run down on where they would go on their tour, explained the rules - don't talk to the inmates, don't touch anything, stay with the group - they were not anxious to violate THAT rule - there were no "stragglers". They were then searched, patted down, and taken down to the compound (where the inmates are) by several prison officials. AT NO TIME were they ever allowed to talk to the inmates or even get close to any of them. But it was funny ... the inmates could spot these groups a mile away and did their part by hooting and hollering and whistling at them, trying their best to frighten them, and the kids were so scared, they'd end up practically velcroed to their counselors and our staff! They took them on a complete tour of the prison, let them see what it's like to work in a prison kitchen or laundry. They learned what it's like to have every minute of your life regulated, being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to shower. Around lunchtime they'd take them down to the maximum security building so they could see what's it's like to be locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Then (if they had enough open cells) they would lock them each in a vacant cell to eat lunch so they could see what it was like to eat all your meals from a styrofoam tray with a plastic spork in a little 8'x10' concrete room. And a few of the ones with "attitude", they'd kind of forget to let them out of the cell for a while, waiting till they were on the verge of panic setting in. And it worked!
After spending the day like that, they'd bring them back up to the conference room for a "question and answer" session with four or five v-e-r-y carefully selected inmates. These were all really good inmates who all were eager to participate in this, guys who genuinely wanted to help, ones who would talk to the kids without pulling any punches, but they also managed to select ones who were very threatening looking ... the more tattoos the better. These were some of our very best, most trustworthy inmates but those kids didn't know that! They told these kids how they were just like them when they were kids, where they were headed, and what it's really like to walk in their shoes! They told them how it was to have nothing to look forward to but spending the rest of their life in prison, how the path they had chosen had destroyed their own lives, their victims lives, and the lives of their families. If this didn't get to those kids, nothing would. Every last one of them were shaken to their shoes! And I think it really did make a big difference! It may not have turned all of them around, but some of them it definately did! All programs may not be operated the way that ours was but I thought it was a WONDERFUL program and we were all very sorry to see it discontinued.
