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 to have your freedom, in a sense, taken away. Everything that's important to you, family, watching TV., playing with your friends, sleeping in, eating your favorite foods, have all now been taken away. You can see the kids are actually thinking about these things and contemplating whether their behavior is really worth it or not.
By the end of the tour and tough lectures, the kid is usually in tears, hugging their parent's, and apologizing deeply. I can say that since we've been doing this program, we have received some feedback from some parents. The parents that have contacted us after the tour have said they have seen a complete change in their kids and really appreciate our help.
Since starting here back in 1997, I've noticed a big difference between my generation and this generation of youth. Most of these kids think their invincible and have no respect for any authority figure, be it their parents, school teachers, elderly, neighbors, police officers, etc I find it baffling that kids are growing up with no fear. They think it's o.k. to talk back to anyone in authority and even fight physically. Kids are starting off younger and younger committing crimes. Just this year alone, we've had three to four kids, who are actually 18 years old, and seniors currently in school arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, drug possession, or unpaid tickets turned into warrants. When I was their age, I wasn't thinking about that, I was worried about keeping a full-time job.
I have to say that I am very worried about the direction our youth is heading. If our current youth is our future, I have no idea where society is going to be 20 years from now. If touring a jail or prison makes a difference in at least one kid's life, then allow the tours, because that is one less person we have to pay to be housed in a jail/prison. The individual and the family are not the only ones who pay for their crimes, society has to pay as well. The cost of housing inmates is ridiculous and it's only going to continue to get worse unless we as parents and public figures become more PROACTIVE and not REACTIVE!