Mandatory Prison Visit for Freshmen?

[Rhino]

Lawmaker: Shock ninth-graders with prison trips

By JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, February 5, 2007

A Missouri lawmaker wants to scare teenagers out of committing crimes by making all ninth-grade students tour a state prison.

Sen. Tim Green, D-St. Louis, has proposed legislation that would require schools to take all ninth- graders to a state correctional center before their sophomore year starting in the 2009-10 school year.

Superintendents or principals who fail to comply with the law would have their contracts terminated under the proposal.

The goal is to "show them that crime doesn’t pay," Green said. "We have a lot of forks in the road in our lives. One bad decision can ruin a young person’s entire life. Showing them the consequences might be enough to deter them from taking that wrong turn."....http://www.showmenews.com/2007/Feb/20070205News002.asp

[BuckeyeMike]

Thought ninth graders were Freshmen.

[Kathy30]

It sounds like a retread of the scared straight program that was such a failure.

[Air-Warrior]

It sounds like a retread of the scared straight program that was such a failure.Yes, I thought the same thing but...

Scared Straight had a profound effect on me. My parents forced me to watch that show and it definitely scarred (and scared) me. I think the plethora of prison life movies that have come and gone since then also kept me on edge and inspired me to counsel youths about staying within boundaries of the law.

[DoctorDoom]

It won't do a whit of good. Any smartass punks who are likely to wind up in the slammer won't be deterred by the experience. If anything, the dumb little shits will think it's "cool".

[Rhino]

Thought ninth graders were Freshmen.Good point. I'll change the title.

[Wolfcounsel]

Kids are getting smart-asser each generation. I'll bet the current batch of youngsters understands that the punks in prison, the corrections officers, the various individuals who may talk bad ass and tough to them, cannot so much as touch them for any reason. They'll get their rocks off listening to the clowns and then brag to other kids about their "time in hell".

[Charity]

Many liberal freshman will just look at it as apartment shopping.

[Rhino]

My youngest got scared straight the hard way. He participated in a ruckus on the schoolbus one day and ended up spending a few hours at the police station. He wasn't technically under arrest. They just removed him from the bus to defuse the situation. He was a wreck when I finally got there, and he never created one bit of a problem again.

[Wolfcounsel]

"My youngest got scared straight the hard way. He participated in a ruckus on the schoolbus one day and ended up spending a few hours at the police station." --Rhino

Some kids will see the light. Some won't. It's no big deal for me if the light some of them see is the flash from my shotgun as the lead hurtles to their chests.

[Rhino]

He wasn't really guilty of a crime. It was like the referees in pro football. They almost never see the first blow, but see the second one thrown as a defense and flag the second player. The kid that actually started the incident was arrested for something else later, and eventually expelled. I did like that it scared my kid though. He stayed far away from controversy after that. He's no angel mind you, but he steers well clear of violating any law.

He drives slower than an 80 year old lady too. LOL!

[DesertFox]

I had a young nephew, at the time in 7th grade and living with me, who also got scared straight. He and a buddy vandalized a shed on a golf course. I spoke with the MP's and axed them to run him thru the whole process -- frisking, ID photo, prints, hard talking, etc -- and it scared the living snockers out of that kid. He never broke the law again so far as I know, not even in small things.

Scared straight works on kids who most probably would have figured it out on their own anyway. The hard core ones are already lost by 9th grade. As somebody noted earlier, they've already figured out that nobody can touch them.

[Pennville_Bill]

We have annual tours of the jail, but I don't think they do much good. And yes the minors know the CO's can't touch them -- until they get to a youth facility. Then it's kiddie boot camp.

All in all, incarcerated juvenile offenders are often more dangerous than the adults: they don't have the experience to fathom cause and effect, and therefore are more prone to assault staff with no thoughts to the consequences of their actions.

[Riverboat]

I think it's an idiotic idea, but what the hell. If it gets the shaved-head cretins out of my class for a day on a field trip, who am I to say no?