16
Public Sector Gulags / Richland County SC Scared Straight Jail Program
« on: January 06, 2012, 12:44:14 AM »
http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/201 ... ional.html
RCSD goes national
Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s READY program airs on A&E
By Julia Rogers Hook
In 2010, a story was published in The Columbia Star about the Richland County Sheriff ’s Department’s program for troubled teens that imitates a night in jail. The teens are brought to the Sheriff ’s Department by parents who are frustrated and feel like their children are headed for trouble or worse…. going to jail for real.
Headed by Investigator Gerald Walls, the program is called the READY program, an acronym for Richland (County) Educating And Deterring Youth. The basic idea is to give problem teens a taste of what jail is like before it becomes a reality. The department does it twice a month, one time with male teens and one time with female teens. Walls said there is no difference in the treatment of the kids. Boys and girls alike are still treated as prisoners.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said that when he started the program he wanted it to be tough, but he also wanted the area youth to realize the community and the police cared about their well-being.
The officers working with the kids in the READY program do not treat it as a trial run. An actual arrest is imitated from the handcuffing and searching of the teens to traveling in a paddy wagon to a real jail cell at the court house and all that goes with it. “ It’s not just about locking them up and leaving them to the justice system,” Lott said. “It’s about helping to get them on the right track. This program, under Investigator Walls, has proven to be invaluable for the students in the county.”
And the agenda is clearly working because earlier this year, the program grabbed the attention of A& E’s series “Beyond Scared Straight” producers, and they ran a segment of Columbia’s version on their nationally aired show.
“ When they got in touch with me, they said they had found us online,” Walls said. “ They came down here in April to see what we did, and then they decided to run it.”
The segment ran December 8 and showed troubled male teens spending a terrifying night in jail with the participating deputies doing their best to show exactly how hard institutional life can be. Now, the RCSD and Investigator Walls is receiving calls from across the country from other law enforcement agencies that want help starting a similar program in their area and even some from parents themselves who want to send their children to Richland County.
“It’s amazing…I got a call from a mother in California who wanted to bring her daughter to our program,” Walls mused. “This morning a detective in Wyoming called and wants our help in starting up a program there. Parents are willing to fly themselves and their kids across the country to do this program. I guess it just shows how many parents are frustrated and at their limit.”
Sheriff Lott said he was pleased with the national reaction to the show and the READY program.
“ To have so many parents and other agencies interested in what we are trying to accomplish lets us know that we are on the right track in saving our youth one by one with each session we conduct,” the sheriff said.
The RCSD program is one of the toughest out there as most deterrent programs just involve a visit to a jail and maybe speaking with inmates.
“ The difference in our program is that, as far as I know, we are the only program that keeps the kids overnight,” Walls said. “ We do have a program that just takes the kids to talk to the inmates as well, but the READY program is intense and intended to really scare these kids.”
Walls said the point is to reach the kids before they get into serious trouble.
“A lot of these kids are not really bad kids,” said Walls. “ They may be from a single parent home, or they may have hooked up with the wrong crowd. The purpose of our program is to make them realize that the paths they are choosing are not necessarily the paths they want to take.”
To get the teens into the READY program, parents have to agree to drop them off at the Sheriff ’s Department and leave them there overnight. They sign a permission slip and pay $10 to cover the uniforms and food for the night. And then the parent must leave the kids, often with both the parent and child in tears.
“It’s not an easy thing to do because we explain to the parents that it will be a tough night,” Walls said. “But one night of a mock arrest can prevent years of real nights in jail. These parents are at the end of their ropes.”
The officers working with these kids do not treat it as a trial run at all though. An actual arrest is imitated from the handcuffing and searching of the teens to traveling in a paddy wagon to a real jail cell at the court house and all that goes with it.
The officers are waiting for the kids to arrive and are bellowing out orders that echo in the parking garage of the jail as the teens are hurried out of the paneled van while still in cuffs. No one is smiling, and it all seems real. If a teen cracks a smile or tries to act tough, one of the officers will quickly end it, as can be seen on the A&E show.
There’s a scene where a teen is told to do a sitting squat against the wall. He makes the mistake of telling RCSD Officer Kelvin Griffin “This hurts man.”
Griffin gets close to the teen and screams into his ear.
“ I ain’t your ‘man’ and you don’t call me ‘man’ do you understand me? Do you?”
The teens are told they are to answer with only ‘yes sir/ mam’ or no sir/mam’ and deputies do another search before the kids are given prison jumpsuits and are put through rigorous calisthenics and assessments. They speak to counselors who try to get them to tell them why they are acting like they are. Most of the time the crime is as simple as ditching school or breaking curfew.
“If we can get them before they move on to bigger mistakes or get caught for smoking pot or stealing CDs, then we have a really good chance of making an impression that can really change their lives,” Walls said.
Lott said that he hears good things from a lot of people involved in the program.
“I think the success stories we hear from both the parents and the students themselves tell the story,” he said.
One of the main requirements of the night is that each teen write a letter of apology to their parent or parents.
“ We want them to admit what they have done wrong,” Walls said. “ We want them to realize why they are there.”
Nothing is sugarcoated through- out the night in jail. They are roused from a troubled sleep in a solitary cell on a bench that serves as bed, table, and chair. On the A& E show one teen is shown pacing the small walking area before he finally tries to lie down and sleep the night away. A few minutes later the lights flash on and officers raid all the cells to get the boys up to once again work out.
“It’s to show that in jail, time is not your own,” Walls said. “In jail your life is not your own. You do as you’re told and when you’re told. It might seem cool to hang out with your buddies and act tough on a street corner, but I haven’t seen one yet that comes through one of these nights without breaking.”
One mother said that after her son spent the night in the READY program, he told her he never wanted to go back because that place smelled awful. When she related the story to Walls, he just smiled and looked satisfied.
“That’s what I like to hear,” he chuckled. “That’s the whole point of the program. We don’t do it to show them a good time. We do it to make them never want to see the inside of a jail again.”
RCSD goes national
Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s READY program airs on A&E
By Julia Rogers Hook
In 2010, a story was published in The Columbia Star about the Richland County Sheriff ’s Department’s program for troubled teens that imitates a night in jail. The teens are brought to the Sheriff ’s Department by parents who are frustrated and feel like their children are headed for trouble or worse…. going to jail for real.
Headed by Investigator Gerald Walls, the program is called the READY program, an acronym for Richland (County) Educating And Deterring Youth. The basic idea is to give problem teens a taste of what jail is like before it becomes a reality. The department does it twice a month, one time with male teens and one time with female teens. Walls said there is no difference in the treatment of the kids. Boys and girls alike are still treated as prisoners.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said that when he started the program he wanted it to be tough, but he also wanted the area youth to realize the community and the police cared about their well-being.
The officers working with the kids in the READY program do not treat it as a trial run. An actual arrest is imitated from the handcuffing and searching of the teens to traveling in a paddy wagon to a real jail cell at the court house and all that goes with it. “ It’s not just about locking them up and leaving them to the justice system,” Lott said. “It’s about helping to get them on the right track. This program, under Investigator Walls, has proven to be invaluable for the students in the county.”
And the agenda is clearly working because earlier this year, the program grabbed the attention of A& E’s series “Beyond Scared Straight” producers, and they ran a segment of Columbia’s version on their nationally aired show.
“ When they got in touch with me, they said they had found us online,” Walls said. “ They came down here in April to see what we did, and then they decided to run it.”
The segment ran December 8 and showed troubled male teens spending a terrifying night in jail with the participating deputies doing their best to show exactly how hard institutional life can be. Now, the RCSD and Investigator Walls is receiving calls from across the country from other law enforcement agencies that want help starting a similar program in their area and even some from parents themselves who want to send their children to Richland County.
“It’s amazing…I got a call from a mother in California who wanted to bring her daughter to our program,” Walls mused. “This morning a detective in Wyoming called and wants our help in starting up a program there. Parents are willing to fly themselves and their kids across the country to do this program. I guess it just shows how many parents are frustrated and at their limit.”
Sheriff Lott said he was pleased with the national reaction to the show and the READY program.
“ To have so many parents and other agencies interested in what we are trying to accomplish lets us know that we are on the right track in saving our youth one by one with each session we conduct,” the sheriff said.
The RCSD program is one of the toughest out there as most deterrent programs just involve a visit to a jail and maybe speaking with inmates.
“ The difference in our program is that, as far as I know, we are the only program that keeps the kids overnight,” Walls said. “ We do have a program that just takes the kids to talk to the inmates as well, but the READY program is intense and intended to really scare these kids.”
Walls said the point is to reach the kids before they get into serious trouble.
“A lot of these kids are not really bad kids,” said Walls. “ They may be from a single parent home, or they may have hooked up with the wrong crowd. The purpose of our program is to make them realize that the paths they are choosing are not necessarily the paths they want to take.”
To get the teens into the READY program, parents have to agree to drop them off at the Sheriff ’s Department and leave them there overnight. They sign a permission slip and pay $10 to cover the uniforms and food for the night. And then the parent must leave the kids, often with both the parent and child in tears.
“It’s not an easy thing to do because we explain to the parents that it will be a tough night,” Walls said. “But one night of a mock arrest can prevent years of real nights in jail. These parents are at the end of their ropes.”
The officers working with these kids do not treat it as a trial run at all though. An actual arrest is imitated from the handcuffing and searching of the teens to traveling in a paddy wagon to a real jail cell at the court house and all that goes with it.
The officers are waiting for the kids to arrive and are bellowing out orders that echo in the parking garage of the jail as the teens are hurried out of the paneled van while still in cuffs. No one is smiling, and it all seems real. If a teen cracks a smile or tries to act tough, one of the officers will quickly end it, as can be seen on the A&E show.
There’s a scene where a teen is told to do a sitting squat against the wall. He makes the mistake of telling RCSD Officer Kelvin Griffin “This hurts man.”
Griffin gets close to the teen and screams into his ear.
“ I ain’t your ‘man’ and you don’t call me ‘man’ do you understand me? Do you?”
The teens are told they are to answer with only ‘yes sir/ mam’ or no sir/mam’ and deputies do another search before the kids are given prison jumpsuits and are put through rigorous calisthenics and assessments. They speak to counselors who try to get them to tell them why they are acting like they are. Most of the time the crime is as simple as ditching school or breaking curfew.
“If we can get them before they move on to bigger mistakes or get caught for smoking pot or stealing CDs, then we have a really good chance of making an impression that can really change their lives,” Walls said.
Lott said that he hears good things from a lot of people involved in the program.
“I think the success stories we hear from both the parents and the students themselves tell the story,” he said.
One of the main requirements of the night is that each teen write a letter of apology to their parent or parents.
“ We want them to admit what they have done wrong,” Walls said. “ We want them to realize why they are there.”
Nothing is sugarcoated through- out the night in jail. They are roused from a troubled sleep in a solitary cell on a bench that serves as bed, table, and chair. On the A& E show one teen is shown pacing the small walking area before he finally tries to lie down and sleep the night away. A few minutes later the lights flash on and officers raid all the cells to get the boys up to once again work out.
“It’s to show that in jail, time is not your own,” Walls said. “In jail your life is not your own. You do as you’re told and when you’re told. It might seem cool to hang out with your buddies and act tough on a street corner, but I haven’t seen one yet that comes through one of these nights without breaking.”
One mother said that after her son spent the night in the READY program, he told her he never wanted to go back because that place smelled awful. When she related the story to Walls, he just smiled and looked satisfied.
“That’s what I like to hear,” he chuckled. “That’s the whole point of the program. We don’t do it to show them a good time. We do it to make them never want to see the inside of a jail again.”