Salvation Army

Every Centenary student who plans on graduating must complete a service-learning requirement. This semester I am working with the Salvation army and The Boy's and Girl's Club to complete this requirement. Today was my first day and KC (head of development) gave me a little history behind the salvation army. The two shelters in the Shreveport-Bossier area serves some 5,000 meals twice daily. They are in great need of volunteers and were happy to have me for my 30 hours needed. Their is a large population of Shreveport-Bossier that depends on non-profit organization's, like the salvation army, for shelter and food. During the hours i worked today, i met with a majority of the children who arrive at the Boy's and Girl's club after school. The children are all african american and from low-income families. I look forward to working with these children and volunteering my services to this great organization.

Sports: Keeping Kids out of Trouble?

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/4-12-2001-2977.asp

Jack Hustlar; 4/12/2001

Founder and CEO of the North American Youth Sport Institute

Jack Hustlar responds to a questionnaire talking about Sports and delinquency prevention. He talks about how the boys and girls who participate in sports learn positive characteristic traits. This includes better academic performances, fewer problems in school, and an upward social mobility orientation. Boys and Girls who participate in sports are less likely to be involved with certain social issues (teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, and school problems). When a child plays a sport, he or she is likely to develop some type of role model to help them become a better player. This may include a parent, teacher, coach, or professional athlete. Hustlar mentions how coaches and parents are interested in encouraging and pushing players to strive for the next level of play (high school, college, pro..). Young boys and girls can use sports as an activity to play after school, or a way to live their life and earn an education. During high school, I personally was faced with a situation that if it wasn't for sports I wouldn't be were I am now.

After School Tutoring

Earlier today the Centenary Baseball Team visited Meadowview Elementary School in Bossier to help tutor students. Meadowview Elementary is a neighborhood school (meaning children can walk to school). When we arrived at the school, we met with the principle and she gave us a little background on the students. Most of the children resided from lower-socioeconomic households. After completing the 4th grade students must pass the "leep" test in order to advance. Students who don't pass are required to take summer school and/or repeat the 4th grade. The students we tutored were part of an after-school tutoring program. The principle assigned 2 Centenary players with each classroom. My classroom consisted of about 8 students. For the next two hours we helped the students complete their basic math worksheets. This was a great experience and the kids loved having us their. I spoke with the principle before we left, asking her a couple questions about juvenile behavior among the students. The first thing she told me was that most of these children walk to school, and the neighborhoods they live in are of lower class. Without me even mentioning my research project, the topic was being discussed. I'm assuming that she meant, since the students live in lower class neighborhoods and walk to school, they are more likely to be involved with criminal behavior. She explained to me how it was her (i assume the school's) job to find after school activities and programs for her students. I have arranged a meeting with her later in the school year to learn more about these programs and pick her brain.

Gridiron Gang

Just finished watching the film Gridiron Gang, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The film is about teenagers at a juvenile detention center who gain self-respect and confidence by playing football. Johnson plays the role of the detention center counselor who uses his leadership skills to change the lives of the young men. Even though their locked up, they can still make something out of their lives. I look at this movie as an insight into connecting opportunities with juvenile behavior. I imagine that most of these young men chose to take part in a criminal act (which landed them locked up). Opportunities may have been crucial in this decision. A teenager may have less opportunities to play sports, get a good education, and be surrounded by parents who love them. Resulting in them taking the wrong path in life. This movie utilizes opportunity to bring success. By participating in football, these young men develop certain skills which they haven't been exposed to before. These skills include: teamwork, respect, leadership, commitment, and hard work. So basically, it takes them getting arrested in order to be exposed to life-long skills which are vital.

Dr. Rich Reaches Out to Help Young Men

From a story on NPR's Morning Edition, February 9, 2010.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122791527

A professor at Drexel University School of Public Health, Dr. John Rich conducted a study to help African American men. Throughout the 90's Dr. Rich worked at Boston City Hospital during a time of high violence. Rich began noticing the number of young black men arriving with serious injuries. Most of the doctors and nurses assumed these men weren't "true victims" and had done something to get themselves hurt. Rich started interviewing these men to find the truth behind their stories.

According to the young men's stories, many of them weren't responsible for their own injuries. Some were robbed, one was walking home and caught in the line of fire, and others were in the wrong place at wrong time. Dr. Rich explored the emotional wounds these young men were feeling. Those wounds dealt with their safety. Dr. Rich grew up in Queens with a father who was a dentist and mother a teacher. He was exposed to a different upbringing than these young men were. His opportunities were a lot more plentiful.

My research of connecting social class with juvenile behavior includes this lack of opportunity for most lower income families. Young men who grow up in low income households receive fewer opportunities than men in middle-upper class ones. Juvenile behavior and activities can be a result of these limited opportunities.

Update

Well its mardi gras break and their's snow in shreveport, couldn't ask for much more. Within the next couple weeks I should be starting my interviews and collecting more data. I have also talked with some friends about starting a focus group. The focus group will be a great way to find out some of my friends thought's on police, crime, etc..... Looking forward to it.

Money does help!

I was reading up on some online articles when i stumbled along a "reader's comment" section of the New York Times website. A gentleman talks about his sons navigation through the juvenile justice system. His son was able to avoid detention for his crimes due to the help of a good attorney and high school principle. As i focus my research on lower income households, their ability to afford a good attorney to get their son out of a pinch, may be slim to none. Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusion, but here is another example of the opportunities the lower social class families don't have..................

Parental Involvement

In several of my studies the authors talk about the different variables linked to juvenile delinquency behavior. These variables include: family, friends, education, activities, etc... To me the most important is family (The importance of parents in a child's life is vital). During my internship at the Detention Center i had noticed a lot of the juveniles lived with their grandparents/ aunt and uncles. They weren't being raised by their parent, but the parental figure was present . I am convinced that the more time parents and/or guardians spend with their children, the less chances that child will develop problems or be involved with the wrong crowd. ......

Social Mobility

After finishing up some research, i found an interesting scholarly article that uses "social mobility" as more of a connection to delinquent behavior, rather than social class. The article is "Social Class, Social Mobility and Delinquent Behavior." Author Gerald J. Pine explains how students who move up or down the social structure will impact juvenile delinquency. So....What i got out of this study was that it's not the social class that a juvenile is a part of that will determine their chances of criminal acts, but rather their social structure status. A subject who is moving upward in the social structure is less involved with delinquency rather than a subject who is moving downward. This "social structure status" is where an individual sees themselves in society.

Analytic Codes for Observational Exercise #1

As I further each step of my research I am starting to recognize patterns. Beginning with my field notes from the observation of the Juvenile Detention Center. Not only was their a strong amount of gender segregation between the juveniles, but racial segregation as well. Even though there was a low number of white juvenile, at the time I was there, some racial segregation was present. The two white male inmates were housed in Pod#3 (The female Pod). This could have been for safety reasons and to avoid any type of discrimination.

Another analytic code i found as i read through my field notes about the detention center was the continued "home environment" setting. Even though this place was behind bars, it still had a home setting. The "home setting" takes use back to the biological aspect of a family. The pod officers are all males, acting as somewhat of a "father figure" for the juveniles . The teachers and female officer who watched everyone from inside the security booth could even be seen as a "mother figure." Juveniles are required to respect people, complete chores, and keep their cells clean (All examples of a working household). When a juvenile wants to act out in ways that are not allowed. detention center staff punishes them accordingly.

Field Notes (Observation 1)

The date was ** 2009 at 10 am as I walked through the main doors of the ** Juvenile Court Detention center. This was a very familiar place to me because i had spent a couple days a week here for an internship during the spring semester of '09. There was a lady behind glass-plated windows who buzzed me through the main entrance door. I proceeded to put my keys, wallet, phone, and hat into a blue storage box. Visitors weren't allowed to bring any outside objects into the center. I had to sign in as a "visitor" inside a login book that was about the size of two phonebooks (I specifically remember using a red pen). I waited a couple minute until i was buzzed through the first set of security doors. These doors are heavy duty and can be opened by either key or electronically unlocked by the center's security system. I made it through the first door, waited about 30 seconds until I heard another “buzzing” that unlocked the second door. I opened the last door and was inside the cafeteria. There were 7 large white tables, surrounded by about 5-10 blue chairs at each table. I remember the brightness of the room, the whole area was surrounded by glass windows and doors that led to outside. There were 3 cooks preparing for the 1^st lunch shift.

I was met by Officer #1 (included a big handshake and smile), who I had spent a lot of time with during my internship. We continued to walk through another set of locked doors that led into the main area and pods. This specific door could only be opened by key. Parallel to this door was the main security dock that controlled everything throughout the building. Inside this dock was: the head security officer (still the same female I had met in spring), all controls and surveillance system, and two empty cells used for lockdown.

As we entered the main area of the detention center I noticed the same set-up but with all new faces. All juveniles were set up at tables and were in the middle of school. There were more white tables and blue chairs, but each table had a different number of juveniles at it. I counted about 20 juveniles, each one with the same outfit; bright orange jumpsuit and white Velcro strapped tennis shoes. The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was a majority of the juveniles looking and talking towards me. It’s almost like they all expected something from me, because most outside visitors that come into detention are there as a guest speaker to add inspirational advice for the adolescents. Due to my height and size, most juveniles automatically assume I play some type of sport. This same situation happened during the first couple days of my internship.

I sat at one of the tables with the juveniles and started truly observing. There were 3 white juveniles (1 male and 2 female) and the rest were black. Three pod officers, 2 female teachers, and 1 roamer. The teachers were the same two ladies who I had met during my internship; I spent a couple minutes talking to them. Officer #1 then introduced me to the other 2 officers and roamer. All 3 officers were male (Black, White, and Hispanic). The roamer was a black female; she was more of a volunteer. All juveniles were in the middle of doing their homework that had been assigned by the teachers. The male juvenile sitting across from me was searching through a book full of reptiles and mammals. This main room had 5 doors leading to somewhere else; 3 Pod doors, 1 door that led to outside, and 1 laundry room door. In one of the corners was a large L-shaped table that had about 9-10 computers and chairs surrounding it. Two students were on opposite ends of the table working on the computer. These two students were completing homework online which was assigned to them by their real school. This allowed them to keep up in the classroom by taking online tests and homework sent via internet by teacher. All 3 pods had glass windows and doors, allowing the security dock to observe everything going on. The center had a speaker system, which enabled the security dock to talk back and forth with officers through an intercom system. It must have been 5 minutes later when one of the juveniles name was called over the intercom and asked to leave. Where his probation officer was awaiting (they either had a meeting or court appearance). All juveniles were sustained from speaking out, unless a teacher or pod officer approved it.

School was over, and each pod lined up in front of their pod doors. I followed pod officer #1 into the pod with 8 male juveniles. Each of the 3 pods was segregated. Pod #1 housed all older male juveniles whose crimes were serious. Pod #2 housed younger male juveniles who crimes were less serious. Pod #3 housed all female juveniles and smaller/youngest males. Through the completion of my internship I learned a lot about the juvenile system and how it works. These 3 pods would be segregated for safety reasons. If a homosexual male were sentenced to detention, he would usually be placed in pod 3 to avoid any type of harassment or discrimination. Pod officer #1 immediately locked up all juveniles so they could use the rest room before lunch and he could add any necessary positive or negative statements to their folders. In pod #1, there were 8 individual cells, each with a small window at the top of the door. There were four couches in the middle of the pod. Each couch had a wooden frame with a hard blue “plastic-feeling” cushion. These couches were extremely uncomfortable, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time on them last semester. In one of the corners was a bookshelf with no more than 50 books to choose from. Another corner of the pod has a television on a stand with about 20 or so movies. The pod officer had his own desk but kept nothing but hand sanitizer and Kleenex on it. After about 5 minutes of conversation with pod officer #1, he proceeded to unlock each cell and let the juveniles out. Three of them immediately went to an empty table and began playing dominoes. One juvenile grabbed a book from his cell, sat down on the couch next to me, and began reading. He looked like a very humble young boy who was locked up for making a bad decision (That was the vibe I was getting). The rest of the juveniles slouched down on the couches and asked permission to turn the television on. Each of them had the worst possible posture I had ever seen (they were either hunched over with their head down or sprawled out like the couch was a bed). During school hours at the detention center, each juvenile is REQUIRED to sit up straight with all four legs of the chair touching the ground. I wasn’t sure if this was a time when they felt like getting revenge on the rules, or were just extremely lazy. The pod officer reminded the juveniles the channels they are restricted to watch (I glanced at the list and it was channels such as: BET, MTV, and Talk shows). The local news channel had popped up when the television had been turned on. There was a report of a young black male who had committed some form of robbery, and the news station kept showing his picture. Well 2 of the juveniles started talking about how they knew this individual and continued to laugh and crack jokes about him. I listened in on a couple side conversations going on to couch next to me. They spoke with a great amount of slang, but I am familiar with most of it. One juvenile was talking about smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol the day he gets out, even though he was going to be receiving drug tests by his probation officer. The other was talking about a girl he had been dating but it was hard for me to understand him.

Each pod had a one phone that was located right behind the pod officer’s desk. The phone looked exactly like a payphone and permission by the pod officer must be granted before any juvenile can use it. The young boy who had been reading is boy and not spoken a word had asked permission to call his home. The first words he said were “Hey Grandma”. I assumed he lived with his grandma and/or grandpa if he referred to it as “home”. The next thing I heard was the voice of the head security guard lady saying it was Pod #1’s turn for lunch. The television was turned off, dominoes and books put away, and everyone lined up in front of the door for lunch. The pod officer walked down the line, squirting hand sanitizer into each juvenile’s palm. He opened the door, as it was pod #1’s time for lunch. Each juvenile placed their hands behind their back and walked in a single file line to the cafeteria. Once we all entered the cafeteria, half of the room was full of court clerks and other staff members enjoying their lunch. There were two tables sectioned off for the juveniles. The pod officer reminded them to not speak with each other and to not speak with any staff unless spoken to first. The juveniles got their lunch and proceeded to their table. Not until all of them were behind their chairs was when they could sit down and start eating with the pod officer’s approval.