by T.L.Gowans

Created on: May 31, 2008

YES! Definitely, I believe children should be given the opportunity to tour either a jail or prison in a secured manner. I am currently a supervisor in a jail and we have tours that come through weekly, consisting of the local scouting groups, various religious groups, and different youth groups from the schools. I have to admit that I am still not comfortable having the kids' tour our facility, but we ensure everything is secure, before they are able to tour.

I've noticed before the tour even begins, the kids are laughing and joking around about what kind of prisoners they're going to see. Once they start walking through the secured doors to the jail and hear the doors slamming shut behind them, they're completely dead silent. They don't talk, they just look. As we're showing the different areas of our facility, I was pleasantly surprised with the serious and mature questions they asked. Most of the kids generally ask about the food served and why the inmates have to stay locked down. Once they reach the units where the inmates are housed, the kids are quite hesitant to continue walking; for fear the inmates will see them through the windows. In our facility, the windows have one way reflective tint, which keeps them from seeing outside of their unit. Once the kids realize the inmates cannot see out of the units, they begin to calm down. I can't say if touring the jail has made a significant difference in the choices these kids make, but I can safely say I haven't seen any of them come to jail and I've been here 11 years.

Our facility also offers a program for kids who seem to be out of control. These are kids whose parents are at a loss for getting control of their kids. We've had kids as young as 6 come through the facility to do a one on one tour of the facility. The trouble the kids are getting into range anywhere from stealing, assaulting siblings & parents, to running away from home. These kids are so defiant and have absolutely no respect for any authority. One of our sergeant's escorts the kid around and gives them a kind of "tough love" lecture about getting in trouble and where it could lead them to. The kids usually show up with their parents with very bad attitudes. They're very stand-offish and arrogant towards the staff. They have this attitude that there's nothing we can say to scare them. They also get a kind of "tough love" lecture from an inmate who's facing serious time for their crimes. The inmate explains how it feels to be locked up and

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