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Show Page 8 neither of which were unusual. “Rehabilitating Utah’s ‘Juvenile Delinquents ’ (This years article was written ago and submitted four to various institutions of the news media. For obvious reasons no one chose to publish the compilation of events Department and Welfare, Delinquent Goals,’” and Pratt, | read crux of the matter: “If the training school is to do its job of altering disagree with the article by Mr. Nye different or. any illuminate youngster expects and to which he that would further the public and bring the criticized like the of Health Education “‘Institutions Serving Children, Guides and given to me by Mr. what seemed to be the by an ex-employee. WORDPOWER realizes that four years is a long time and that a lot of changes can be made. WORDPOWER_ would welcome any response from responsible persons which might that which the has been accustomed. If hostility is routinely met with hostility, then by Jeff Nye the training school is really doing little more than repeating the kind The State of Utah operates a of life experiences most delinquent single institution for ‘‘juvenile youngsters readily find outside delinquents’ under its State institutional limits... The cottage Department of Welfare. Situated on staff, both men and women, can the north edge of Ogden, the Utah help to change a child’s concept of State Industrial School (SIS) has adults by avoiding retaliatory good facilities and _ pleasant conduct and evidencing genuine surroundings for its two to three interest, sympathy, understanding, hundred young men and women. In and respect for each child. They the past few years, new _ living must possess a Capacity to relate to account up to date.) quarters presently have been built and almost all of the young people live in modern, well planned -buildings. A new arts and crafts children and a_ tolerate deviant behavior building and a new gymnasium are condoning male nearing completion. The groups who are supervised by one person at a time were as large as fifty and sixty a few years go; now most of them are down to a more reasonable eighteen to twenty-five people. The School has two student councils, more than _ fifty discussion-therapy groups directed flexibility in adapting to new situations. They must be able, for example, to it or repressing punitive manner.” , official made, rating the of training Utah State schools Industrail it in a School would likely rate high. immediately admit to talking in the brief time. Afterwards, he did not dining hall was slugged by Mr. A.” talk to them, but sent them directly “Mr. Gu violently hit and shoved to bed.” (11/25/65) “Mr. Chr. hits boys as regularly a certain fellow because he was standing in the hallway near the and naturally as talking to them. it accompanies a supervisors’ office, an infraction of Sometimes, greeting, other times it is over a the house rules, according to Mr. of them. This most of the needs special a week later, beaten up by During my orientation as a boys’ supervisor at SIS, | was impressed by the emphasis. given to “rehabilitation and treatment.” | about half of his group. Mr. Ra., morning supervisor on_ this Was informed by. the the Superintendent, Claud Pratt, that group, responded to this by beating corporal punishment in any form up one of the fellows: involved. Mr. Gu. was told that was prohibited. He mentioned the When widespread use of it before he ‘Peterson got the treatment again,’ became superintendent. He he reacted this way: ‘Well, | think considered the elimination of it as Peterson deserved it. He’ll learn.’ ”’ : an important factor in the School’s (11/24/65) “He looks so damn. shifty.’ rehabilitation effort. In the School’s manual of instructions and (laughs) ... ‘I hate to say it, but he rules. for. supervisors, | reminds me of something slimy.’ read: ‘Corporal punishment which These words of Mr. Gu. referred to. shall include slapping, hitting, or the only Negro boy in his group. handling of. His feelings about the entire group any other physical students, is prohibited. Corporal were not very different: ‘Those are punishment is an infringement of a the biggest bunch of dinks’.” ‘“‘Mr. A. slugged Redmond student’s individual rights. The Redmond called him A. attitude of the staff shall not be because ‘let's show him who’s boss’, but when asking a question instead of shall be done with the attitude of Mr. A....Mr. A. hit Acuna for ‘let’s see how we can understand opening a cupboard door to get his minor difference During the next several months, | felt the pressures to conform to the supervisors’ told Acuna he must get permission before opening the cupboard.” (11/22/65) ...Mr. A. hit, kicked, and slapped in the face, two boys the He slaps in a jovial spirit.”” (11/25/65) friendly counseling and acceptance, to conform’.”’ In a book prepared by the of opinion. “Mir. J. hits and slaps individuals regularly; not only when he’s angry. The boys are usually on, guard when he’s near, anticipating his striking out. In several hours today, he hit boys more than six different times. Like Mr. Chr., he often hits and bag of candy. After hitting him, he attempts Bureau of says he does it in fun and most of the time he is not angry. But, what kind of an example is he setting?” “Mr. S. was greeted by a boy nicknamed Tacos in a friendly way when he came on _ duty, but suddenly turned on Tacos, chasing him and knocking chairs over in the process, and stopped only after he was on top of him. One of the fellows told me this behavior probably stemmed from a desire to get even with Tacos for a past physical encounter. which Tacos had won.” this boy and persuade him through Children’s sharpened rattail comb, he punished both with his fists, according to Bice.” Like Mr. J. and Mr. Chr., Mr. Ga. communicates with his hands as well as using them for punishment. One day shortly after | started working at SIS, | watched a boy approach Mr. Ga., say something to him, and promptly be flipped on the ground by Mr. Ga. _ Officially, rehabilitation is the work of the Utah Institution; and corporal punishment, considered an evil, is prohibited. Realistically, reinforcement of the juveniles’ primary weaknesses such as lack of self-control, hostility, and proneness to violent solutions is the achievement; and the reliance on around § sufficiently to make his serious or minor is the unwritten, mouth bleed and threatened him but operative law. with severe punishment if he told his Gu.’s interpretation fellow is bullied by boys in group and attention... About this same boy was ~ in another group who physical force and the threat of it into the kitchen, slapped him to solve any problem whether boy without. During the first month, | usually worked with another supervisor in . order to learn about the job before supervising a group alone. What occurred from the very first day who were fighting. One of the boys, caused me to take the following Bice, is picked on by most of the group.” (11/23/65) _by social caseworkers, and is among notes: “Shortly before going to bed, November 16, 1965 to the dozen training schools in the Stanley hit Bice in the bathroom, December 1, 1965 country which are co-educational. “Mr. A. broke up a fight by Bice moaned as Stanley started to It is one of four institutions in the each participant several walk away. At this point, Mr. A. country chosen by the Federal slugging Government to receive Federal times. After dinner, Mr. A. made looked in. Bice and Stanley began cases, i.e., Indians, juveniles who those who talked in the dining hall to explain; Mr. A. simply walked them, slugged Stanley have committed Federal offenses, get in a push up position and towards several times, then violently slugged remain that way — for several ete: Donald Tatton, the assistant minutes. One boy who did not and slapped both of them for a superintendent, quoted an official of the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, who described the Utah School “‘second only to the one in Topeka, Kansas”. Were an me for not supervising other supervisors, so inculcated were they with the punitive methods used on them. | continued to recordmy observations. : “Mr. F._criticized me tonight for taking a boy aside to talk to him about fighting with others in the group. He explained, ‘You can solve that kind of problem best in a matter of a few seconds’.” (12/28/65) “Mr. A. discovered that several fellows had discussed in a group therapy session with their caseworked his use of ‘knobbies’, or solid raps on the head with a closed fist. They were frequently given for talking in the shower, talking in the TV room. during a program, forgetting to use ‘sir’ when addressing Mr. A., and_ other infractions of house rules. Mr. A. asked one fellow if he had discussed these things with his caseworker. The boy readily admitted it, but said he was only one among several involved. That night when the group was in bed, Mr. A. took this the youth’s concept of himself and the wrold around him, then the staff member must be able to respond to rebellion in a manner from A fellow had watched this scene later told me that his supervisor Mr. G., had, without explanation, made_ his entire group do exercises when they returned to their butlding. Afterwards, he told them: ‘! don’t ever want Mr. Ga. to get after this group like he did to Group B tonight.” “When Mr. Ga. discovered the two fellows who had stabbed Bice in. the hand and leg with a unwritten rule. My at following the written rules and working at rehabilitation were criticized by other supervisors and by my supervisor. Many of the boys with whom 1! worked also caseworker ‘“‘Mr. around anything further.” S. knocked DeHerrera today as part of the punishment for finding and keeping cigarettes belonging to one of the cooks and then denying that he stole them. This is not the only time Mr. S. has used severe physical force on a boy. It was the second time for DeHerrera. Rossitor told me of the time Mr. S. threw a garbage can lid at a fellow who ducked just in time to miss him and catch Rossitor in the neck, rendering him temporarily unconscious.” | | ‘“Myers and Anderson, two fellows who ran away and turned themselves in a few days later, told me of the physical blows they had received after returning from Mr. D., the supervisor they had hooked it on. They expected this, but they were bitter about Mr. S's treatment: “‘He made us hand out individual pieces of toilet paper in the head and always stay near him. We had to clean the head every day. One day Mr. S. had the whole group chase us and stuff snow down our shirts and pants.’ Myers had caught a cold from this game.” “A “bit = mostalgic,: «Mrs: commented in the dining hall today: ‘We should have a whipping post to straighten you guys out when you get out of line.’ Several decades ago, a whipping post was part of the School’s program.” One of the strangest behaviors | encountered among supervisors occurred after a Sunday night movie in the auditorium. Mr. Ga., the Assistant Director of Group Living, my supervisor, called my group to line up in order to return to their living quarters. When most of the group were in the usual double file line, Mr. Ga. suddenly charged down the middle of the line knocking as many boys as he could into: the seats or onto floor. | can only guess that he not satisfied with the amount noise the group was making and length time it took them to line the was of the up, The constant reliance on force spawns unwanted, but inevitable results: “‘A certain boy was beaten brutally by several of the meanest boys in the school. These boys have spent many months at the School and are nearing their release date. Yet, without the slightest provocation, they beat up .another boy, nearly breaking his jaw. (4/9/66) This is only one of many examples of the failure of fear; as soon as their short memory of punishment fades, these two boys will repeat their They have a meanness and _ others. at brutal violence. long record of cruelty towards the School. Fear, punishment, beatings, denials, threats--these are not the paths toward ‘‘treatment and rehabilitation.’’ As the handbook so correctly says: “If hostility is routinely met with hostility, then the training school is doing little more than repeating the kind of life experiences most delinquent youngsters readily find . outside institutional limits.” Yet this is the environment at SIS. It causes many of the runs which in 1965 amounted to 1963. According to Mr. Tatton, about 40% of the young people run at least once. Many of these run again. ~ |
