Inside Job

What comes to mind when you hear the term “sex offender”? Does the term conjure up images of perverts luring schoolchildren into their automobile with candy, or maybe exhibitionists flashing their genitals in front of unsuspecting passers by, or even serial rapists sexually abusing, torturing, and killing their female victims?

Do you think, when those images drift by on the screen of your mind, that such individuals are the dregs of society, forever irredeemable, and short of sending them all to the electric chair, that we should lock them up and throw away the key?

Well, when I first came to work for the Division of Juvenile Justice, that was pretty much where I was when I thought about men locked up for sexual crimes. As the vagaries of state logistics and the needs of the correctional facility went, I ended up being assigned to a yard where the majority of the population was made of sex offenders.

What I came to understand is that reality was quite different from the picture I had in my mind. Dr. John A. Hunter of the University of Virginia finds “no compelling evidence to suggest that the majority of juvenile sex offenders are likely to become adult sex offenders. . . . juveniles who engage in sexual aggression frequently cease such behavior by the time they reach adulthood.” In fact the recidivism rate among juvenile sex offenders is only 5-14% versus 8-58% for other delinquent behavior. Youth who commit sex offenses are highly unlikely to commit another sexual offense. Furthermore, youth who complete the sex behavioral treatment program given at the facility have an even lower chance of reoffending (at least as sexual offenders—other criminal offenses are another matter).

The other misconception that was dispelled for me was that sex offenders targeted strangers and had multiple victims, when in fact most juveniles molest family members or people who know them well (neighbors, friends,…) and trust them. And even though they may repeat the molestation if they don’t get caught, they usually have one victim. The youth who do not fit this pattern and resemble more the stereotypes described above (rapists, pedophiles, perverts) actually stand out and are talked about more because of their exceptional status.

I have now a very different perspective on these adolescents who indulged their sexual needs in such an unhealthy (and illegal) way. Through interviewing them, I see how many of them have been sexually, physically, or emotionally abused as children, or simply neglected because their parents were drug addicts or perpetually incarcerated. For many of them, there is a hope. The psychological attention they receive at the prison may be the difference between a future as a productive member of society and a life of crime, poverty, or gang involvement.

To be continued.

Peace.

There is a fundamental difference between incarcerated youth and adults. The Department of Juvenile Justice focuses on rehabilitation, release, and relapse prevention. When a minor get committed, the courts give him an Actual Confinement Time (ACT), and the DJJ decides on a Parole Board Date (PBD). No juvenile gets locked up for life, and never beyond age 25. And the difference between their ACT and PBD (sometimes representing up to a 50% reduction in time) can be used as part of a stick-and-carrot approach. Good behavior gets rewarded with an earlier parole board hearing, and a greater likelihood for the board to grant a parole. The board’s number one concern is to insure that it will be safe for the public to release the parolee. All programs at the facility focus on relapse prevention.

But there are those who won’t go. Not all wards are so eager to parole. And for good reasons. What waits for them out there? A broken family, if there’s any family at all. Gang buddies ready to drag them back into the same bad situation. Poor job prospects unless they are willing to be dope dealers. They probably have never received so much attention as since they have been at the DJJ. They get sent to school, they have food and shelter, and their responsibilities are minimal, especially if they do nothing to try to have their time reduced. As a matter of fact, if their intention is to remain incarcerated until they reach their ACT (this is called “maxing out”), they have a built-in incentive for bad behavior, to insure that they will not be ready to parole.

Peace.

When we received our security briefing, the lieutenant warned us about bringing contraband into the facility. Contraband, in prison parlance, refers to objects and substances such as weapons, tools, drugs, or cigarettes, but also less obvious things such as cell phones, computers, or even hand sanitizer bottles—that some wards have stolen for their alcohol content. We were cautioned against leaving a ward unsupervised in an office. They are quite deft at removing your CD drive from your desktop computer. You may ask what in the world they could do with a CD drive. Well, the ingenuity of these kids is amazing.

There is a site dedicated to prison inventions, that exhibits tools and weapons made with the most trivial, everyday objects. For example, below is a tattoo gun assembled with pieces of a Bic pen, a piece of wire, a paper clip, a drive motor, walkman headset wires, and held together with glue and the thread frayed away from institution-issued underwear:

You can see more of these at Prisoners’ Inventions.

The first thought that came to me when the lieutenant showed us a display of the multifarious implements confiscated from prison cells, is how much creativity and inventiveness went into them. What if this brain power could be harnessed for purposes that benefit society, rather than to break the law? Can we turn young criminals into little Einsteins?

Peace.

On my first visit to the correctional facility, one of the psychologists inquired about my initial impression. I remarked to him how different it felt to me to be surrounded by 15-foot high fences and barbed wire. To me, that was one sure sign that I wasn’t in an everyday environment, and summoned images of refugee and concentration camps. I was somewhat surprised to hear him say that he hardly notices the chain-linked fence and concertina wire that mark the perimeter any more. And I must admit that after a week here, they are beginning to blend into the landscape for me too.

It is at times like this that I get a first-hand experience of how adaptable the human mind is. I imagine how a ward must feel when entering the facility for the first time. It makes it understandable that there are many suicide attempts and depressions in this population. But I can also understand how some of those kids , after spending a couple of years in the custody of the State, resist being paroled. Inside, they are held to a steady discipline and schedule, the have psychologists, physicians, social workers, youth correctional counselors attending to them day and night, they go to school regularly and have a chance to receive a high school diploma or learn a trade. They may develop some attachments here, and perhaps the longest lasting relationships they ever experienced in their life. When they parole or finish their time, there isn’t much of a system in place to help them make something of their life. They get sent right back to the family that abused them or the gang that led them to crime.

I don’t want to make is sound like is it all rosy on the inside. But for the majority of those kids, it is not the land of milk and honey on the outside either.

Peace.

Did you ever find yourself in a place you thought you did not want to be? And did you realize afterward that in spite of yourself, a part of you felt an unsuspected level of fascination and excitement? Well, this is what happened to me, and I decided to write this blog in order to chronicle my impressions, feelings, and discoveries. Mostly for my own sake, to allow my memories of the experience to gel. Since this is an environment that few people get to know, I believe that others may enjoy reading it. In the end, this is really because I just wanted to write a blog…

This came about when I began to run out of options in my search for a psychology internship–1,500 hours of supervised practice are required for me to obtain my degree. My last interview was with a detention facility for youth offenders. It had the hallmark of the exact opposite of the ideal internship placement: many of the wards (this is what you refer to juvenile inmates as) were under 18, and I did not want to work with children; for the most part, I would be working with mentally challenged clients, and I wanted to work with a higher-functioning population; the internship was unpaid, and I was hoping to find one with a stipend; finally, I was looking for something close to home, and this one was a one-and-a-half hour commute from where I live. But if I wanted to graduate in June, I had no other choice.

Yet, when I received the news that I was accepted in the program, a sort of giggly feeling arose inside of me. I can’t explain it. Perhaps it was the strange sense of freedom one feels when there is only one possible course of action. I have always loved this quote:

As a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower, until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do. –Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

Something in me was convinced that learning–and challenging–experiences were ahead, and that somehow, I would be able to make a difference in that milieu.

So here I am. I now work for the Department of Corrections. I will share what my fresh eyes will witness in the coming weeks and months.

Peace.