CJ and Children
Good morning Sunday Morning Coffee drinkers/readers! I come to you from H-Town this morning (aka Houston TX). I’ve traded my backyard chickens for a skyline view with a beautiful sunrise after a fierce thunderstorm last night. I’ll take it!
I’m in this neck of the woods to visit former employees who are now life-time friends. Working on the Tx coast was my first real foray into living somewhere other than where I grew up. So, I was in 40’s before I ran away from home. :) I landed in Beaumont, Tx (sandwiched between Houston and Louisiana for those of you not familiar). My whole goal was to live somewhere warm. Truth. That’s how I ended up in correctional education. I was facing an empty nest and I was tired of Amarillo winters. So I took a job as the principal of a school inside a maximum security prison for boys aged 10-21.
Yep. You read that correctly. Aged 10. Ten years old. In prison. The year after I started, they changed the top age from 21 to 19, but Texas still incarcerates children as young as ten in these prisons. Back then, the agency was called the Texas Youth Commission. If you’re a JJ practitioner or policy-maker, you may remember the sexual abuse scandal at one of TYC’s facilities in 2007. It’s an appalling story of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children in confinement. Later on, the agency was merged with the juvenile probation agency and the newly formed agency was tagged the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD). Here’s an excerpt from their present website:
If the juvenile is “adjudicated” for delinquent conduct, there are several possible disposition options, or outcomes, as follows:
The juvenile may be placed on probation; or
The juvenile may be sent to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department with an indeterminate sentence (only felony offenses); or
The juvenile may be sent to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department with a determinate sentence (only certain offenses).
A juvenile who is placed on probation (and not sent to TJJD) must be discharged from the probation by the time he or she turns 18.
A juvenile sent to TJJD with an indeterminate sentence must be discharged by the time he or she turns 19.
A juvenile sent to TJJD with a determinate sentence may be transferred starting at age 16 to adult prison depending on his or her behavior and progress in TJJD programs.
You read that correctly. Kids who have determinate sentences. It’s a part of the CJ system that doesn’t get enough air time, truly. As I was looking for articles to point you toward regarding the 2007 scandal, every one of them said things like “legislators call to burn the system to the ground,'“ and ironically enough, recently there were same calls for the same reasons, and yet…it stands. Some of the politicians at that time are in even more powerful positions now. And yet…it stands.
But enough about politicians.
The year I was the principal at the Al Price facility in Beaumont is one of the favorite of my career. It was kinda a hot mess when I got there. They were experiencing a lot of systemic issues, and had for many years. The teachers were so burned out they led the state agency’s metrics for the most number of call-outs, the school was at the bottom for the number of earned high school diplomas, the top in discipline referrals…and then they got me. I think I was the 7th principal they’d had in something like 15 months, so my arrival wasn’t all that special. It was crazy. All I could do was lay out my expectations for teachers, students, and CJ staff, then tell them what I would do in return…for teachers, remind them why they love being educators…for students, promise safety at school and a love for learning…for JCO’s, a safe work environment with fewer disciplinary responses and pride in seeing the students excel. It wasn’t easy, exactly, but it was an amazingly quick turn-around (with occasional hiccups of course). We led many of the metrics state-wide (the good ones) at the end of the year.
I didn’t know any of the agency’s history when I took the job (smart move on my boss’ move perhaps). I didn’t know places like TYC existed. I didn’t know anything about the term “correctional education.” So, I led just like I led a public school campus. Imagine that…treat incarcerated students like, you know, students.
The teaching staff who stuck it out, bought in, and played along with even my craziest ideas did, in fact, remember why they loved teaching. And man, there were some stellar teachers there. They blew me away. So did the kids! Some of our most successful efforts that year were ideas that the students pitched. Even now, years later, when I think of that year, I have goose bumps and a smile.
Those students still track me down on occasion via Face Book or LinkedIn. Just to let me know how they’re doing. One asked me if I would help his attorney as they were working on expunging his record. He’s in his 30’s now, barely younger than my own children, with a college degree and a family. Some are chefs, some have their own businesses, and all say that the year we transformed the school was the turning point for them. They found their love for learning and were surrounded by adults who weren’t just teaching them, but cheering them on, believing in them, and keeping them safe for possibly the first time in their lives.
That’s the power of love and education right there.
What happens in our adult prisons (or doesn’t happen) across the U.S. is a travesty, but the number of children we throw away every day by locking them up in institutions that not only don’t care about them but actually perpetuate further harm is…wow…I actually can’t think of a word harsh enough for that.
So, politicians, quit talking about burning such a barbaric system to the ground and do it.
To my Al Price peeps who read my attempt at a blog every week, I love you still. You have the biggest hearts on the planet, and your work lives on in the adult men who’ve gone on to be loving dads, husbands, and sons and who still love learning.
If you’re working in the JJ arena and want assistance in creating meaningful programming, professional development for education or CO staff, or just want to swap stories, contact me.
Tally ho Sunday Morning Coffee warriors!
