My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer...A series of True Stories ...

This is a true story of my personal experiences working with incarcerated youth in a juvenile detention facility. A few of these unruly youth were never hauled off to foster homes by CPS . They got caught in a much bigger system. It's called Juvenile Justice. These youth were the troublesome runaways surviving in the streets on their on. This to them was better than living with their abusive parents. Any time they got in trouble, they were simpley taken straight to juvy and booked into the system. This was the case with Maria. She is a prime example of how the whole "system" failed her. I must warn you in advance that Maria's story does not have a happy ending. Some of the details of her story gets extremely disgusting and heartbreaking but it is a story that "must" be told.

I would also like to add that the names and location in this story have been changed and I will be using "stock photos" from google for visual. I will also be adding some you tube videos that I feel will give you a better "big picture" of the Juvenile "Justice" system as CPS is a huge part of this system.

I do not wish to make this post "about me" but I do feel the need to give you a bit of background info and also express my personal feelings while working in this toxic environment. I would also like to add that a lot of changes have been made since I first started my career in Juvenile Justice and I personally was involved in helping execute many of those changes.

1995 - My first Day of On the Job Shadow Training at Juvy - Maria's Story

My first day working with the youth as a Juvenile detention Officer had to be one of the scariest days of my entire life. I had just finished my 2 weeks of in-house training and this was the beginning of "shadow" training with female full-time staff. I was already a bit nervous as I was hired as an on call part-time staff and had not been to the extensive training at the Police Academy program for Juvenile Justice. I was more concerned about the Defensive Tactics than anything. The one day training in this area had already kicked my butt. I simply did not feel qualified enough to restrain out of control gangsters, thieves, murderers, pimps, prostitutes, addicts, drug dealers, mentally handicapped and angry youths. I also had a big problem with putting my hands on youth. I had to keep telling myself "You can do this as you know that you are meant to be here!"

Just walking into the building where the High Security youth were housed was intimidating enough. This part of the facility was built in 1971 to hold the juvenile joy rider, vandal or schoolyard fighter but you could not tell that by the look and feel of this creepy place. My first thought was "OMG this looks like an adult prison! Do they really keep kids here?" My next thought was "What the heck was I thinking?'

The morning started out with a staff meeting in the control room which was located in the center of what looked like a huge rundown gym. The Supervisor started out by introducing me to the staff on duty. He then assigned me to a female staff which I shall call Evelyn. He advised me that she would be "showing me the ropes." He said I should follow her around for the next few hours, then start assisting her in the normal everyday duties.

Evelyn was a short petit African American and looked to be in her early 60's with dark curly graying black hair. I walked over to her to shake her hand and she just grunted and said, "Come with me, we have to go to the cafeteria and get the little brats their breakfast." I turned to the Supervisor and asked him if it was okay to leave. He gave me a grin and a wink and said "go ahead." He also added "Evelyn is the real boss around here." I heard a few of the other officers whispering and giggling. I turned around to face them and the expressions on their faces led me to believe that this was going to be an extremely long and stressful day. Later I found out that Evelyn had been working there since the facility was built in 1971.

After the trek down the long wide never ending corridor, we finally made it to the cafeteria. Just outside the cafeteria was a golf cart with a trailer attached to the rear. On it was about 50 heavy plastic trays stacked 10 deep. Evelyn got in the driver's seat and ordered me to jump on the back of the trailer to make sure the trays didn't fall off. That alone was scary enough! Especially since she drove it like she was racing to the next hole on a golf course. Fortunately the back had a bar I could hang onto.

When we arrived back to the gym, it was time to go let the youth out of their cells. I followed Evelyn down a long hallway and she advised me to open all the cell doors with the exception of one. She said that one of the girls was on a 48 hour lockdown for "acting up." I just happened to be standing in front of the cell door she was referring to. I heard the youth yelling and screaming "Where is my breakfast bitch!"

Evelyn promptly walked up to the 4 inch by 12 inch window and said "Maria, you better stop the yelling or I'm going to give you 24 more hours of lockdown!" "Yes Miss Evelyn," Maria replied softly. Well, that went well, I think?

I then moved on to the next cell, opened the door with my key and 3 girls walked out into the hallway in orange jumpsuits and plastic sandals. They all started lining up in the hallway single file. I took a moment to look around in their cell. The beds were metal frames bolted to the floor with a thin mattress with a blue waterproof covering. That was all that was in the room except for a few school books and other books and a few magazines and letters. I asked Evelyn where the toilet and sink was. One of the girls spoke up and said "in the shower room." We have to ring our buzzer and staff has to let us out to go to the bathroom. " The only cells that had a bathroom and sink were the two single rooms that were used to house youth that were on lock down. As I was about to ask Evelyn where the shower room was, she yelled at me "Hurry and get these brats out of their cells! We don't have all day!" Oh great, now she was yelling at me in front of the girls...Just breathe and and keep your mouth shut...I will pull her aside and address this issue later away from the youth.

After the cell doors were open and all the girls except Maria were lined up in single file, it was time to escort them to the "day room." Evelyn positioned herself in front of the line and told me to go to the rear of the line. As I passed by Maria's cell, I saw her with her face glued to the window. She saw me and stuck her finger in her nose, dug out a bugger and then ate it. She then flipped me off.

When we got to the day room, all the youth were required to sit against the wall. All the boys were already seated on one side of the gym and the girls sat on the other side. Altogether there were about 10 girls and 35 boys. They were told again to line up single file. girls first as the staff handed out their breakfast trays and then have a seat at the table. As they were lining up, I noticed a couple of the boys flipping gang signs at each other. These youth were promptly handcuffed by two of the male staff and escorted back to their rooms.

After all the youth were seated with their breakfast at 6 foot plastic tables and plastic chairs, Evelyn handed me a tray and told me to take Maria her tray. I asked her if I had to open the door to give it to her. "No stupid, that is what the slot in the door is for." " I hate training newbies" she mumbled. I grabbed the tray and headed down the girl's hall without saying and word. Now I was pissed!

When I arrived at Maria's cell, she was still standing with her face glued to the window. I asked her if she was ready for breakfast. "What do you think you "f--in bitch?" "Just open the door and hand it to me." "Uh, no" I replied and starting sliding the tray through the slot in the door. Every time I would slid it in, she would push it back out and start giggling. I finally said, "Last chance. Either you take the tray or I will give it to someone else." This time she took the tray. At this point I had determined that she was bored and this was her way of entertaining herself. As I was about to go back to the gym, she yelled "Wait, I want to ask you something?" "Make it quick," I replied. "You must be new, what is your name?" I gave her my first name, then she asked me what was my last name and where I lived. I advised her I could not give her that information and that I had other things I had to do. At this point I was actually starting to feel empathy for her. She couldn't be over 13 years of age and being locked up in that small cell with no one but staff to talk to had to be miserable for her. I told her I would be back in about 30 minutes to get her tray and headed back to the gym.

After the youth had finished their breakfast and emptied their trays in the giant garbage cans, the youth were escorted to their classrooms for school. I didn't see Evelyn anywhere so I headed back to the girls hall to check on Maria. As soon as I unlocked the double doors separating the dorms from the gym, I heard Evelyn yelling at someone. This is what you get you little brat for mouthing off at me!" She had a ruler in her hand and was whacking this little girl on the top of her hand as hard as she could. I heard the Little girl crying and softly begging her to please stop and that she would behave. "What the hell do you think you are doing!" I yelled at Evelyn. The moment Evelyn heard my voice, the little girl ran past me and Evelyn started chasing after her with the ruler still in her hands. She was much faster so Evelyn could not keep up with her. As Evelyn was checking all the open cells, I heard a little voice coming from a laundry cart full of uniforms that had not been put away yet. I lifted up one of the uniforms and there she was. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and whispered, "Please don't tell her I'm in here!" I said okay, just go in your room and close the door. "Thank you auntie," she replied. She then jumped out of the cart, ran to her cell and slammed the door. When Evelyn came out of one of the cells further down the hall, I advised her that Maria was back in her room. Evelyn then walked up to me with ruler still in hand, raised it in a threatening way and said "You didn't see a thing!" I simply turned around and walked back into the day room and sat down in a chair, debating on what I should do. I knew this had to be reported but I wasn't sure how to go about it. It was my word against hers.

After about 10 minutes, Evelyn came back to the gym and did not say a word to me. I overheard her talking to the other Officers where they were folding uniforms. She was complaining to them that I was lazy and that she couldn't get me to do any work. At this point I stepped up to her face and said, "No, I am not lazy! I just don't wish to work with someone who smacks little girls on the hand with a ruler and likes to bully and embarrass new staff members." I noticed that the supervisor was back in the control room. When he saw me watching him, he waved for me to come to the control room. When I arrived, he asked me what was going on, so I told him the whole story as he quietly listened. After I was done, He said, "Okay, I will talk to Maria after this shift is over." In the meantime, just switch with the other female staff and stay on the floor. I will deal with Evelyn. The next day Evelyn was assigned to court duty and I was assigned another training officer.

This is only the beginning of Maria's story but I must save that for another day as just reliving this part has me totally drained. I will end this post by saying that Maria taught me more my first day than anyone person during my 10 years at Juvy.

Mahalo for taking the time to read Maria's story. Rest in peace my little Angel...

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Next post: Maria - Part 2

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Please take the time to watch this video..if this post doesn't break your heart, this video will!

"Let the things break your heart that breaks the heart of God."

Kids Behind Bars (Prison Documentary) - Real Stories

Real Stories
Published on Feb 4, 2017

Children are tortured in police custody. They are held in prisons in inhuman and degrading conditions. They are denied the due process which should guarantee them fair trials. They are sentenced without ever seeing a courtroom. They are held for years without charge. They are housed with adult prisoners who sexually abuse them. They are beaten by sadistic guards. They are sentenced to death. They are forgotten by the world that walks past the bars of their existence.

With unprecedented and unique access to juvenile prisons around the world, this film looks at the experience of incarceration for juvenile offenders in countries as diverse as the USA and India, the UK and Brazil.