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.