Encore of Our Youth

A note-worthy blog mastered many months ago and previewed for my new audience. Thanks for indulging me.....

4/20/07
Along with improving my health and consequently my world (I work in health insurance by trade and wellness is becoming the link that will save us all) by incorporating more fruit and vegetables in my diet, I have also started riding the bus to and from work. Not so much as a conscience effort to avoid adding more harmful emissions to the air; more for reasons of sheer necessity since our second car has been out of commission for some time now. At any rate, the bus ride each day has become somewhat of an eavesdropping outlet for this observer in order to collect tid-bits and pieces for the next best article.

Yesterday's bus ride home was no exception. As I listened to the women talking about the Virginia Tech shootings in front of me, I found myself searching for any other distraction. I watched as the scandally clad women in the front bobbed her head forward in a trans-like sleep and the man sitting across from her reading a hard-backed book. Then I began to comprehend the conversation of two young men, maybe 15 or 16 years old, sitting directly behind me. With a slight "north-side" accent, as we used to refer to it in high-school, these gangster want-to-be's with their signature tattoos on their hands, talked about going home to find something to eat. In the midst of the uneventful conversation, one of the boys received a phone call. In true eavesdropping fashion, I listened in, hardly realizing that what he was saying was absolutely none of my business. As rude as it is, sometimes the 13-minute ride is so short I find it unbeneficial to take out my reading materials just to put it away so soon. So the listening continued.

The boy on the phone proceeded to talk about a friend or family member, I couldn't tell. Either way, I learned very quickly that the member of subject was incarcerated in a local jail. The young boy was explaining to the person on the other end of the phone that the person in jail had just been moved to a more permanent place. As the boy continued, his voice seemed to get higher with excitement as he described to his conversation partner the place of last resort for their friend. "Yeah man, this place is way nice and it's actually cool. You should see it……" he said. "He'll stay there for a spell and then he'll head up to the big time but this place is cool as all shit. I wouldn't have no problems being in there for a bit." After a slight pause, the boy answered a question posed, presumably, from the person on the end of the phone by saying, "um, yeah, I don't know if cell phones can take collect calls." he continued, "Cause, yeah, I think you can just send that to him and he can get it in four to six weeks when it gets through the system as approved." Once the phone call ended, the boys traveling together continued to joke and laugh about their incarcerated friend, reiterating how cool it was he was in jail.

As the boys continued this display of sheer stupidity, I began to wonder what is happening with our youth of today. This boy was clearly speaking of someone in jail as if the incarcerated person were visiting a spa in Laguna Beach. His voice and his words exclaimed "cool" and "you should see it" as if he had just purchased an X-Box 360 and wanted to share it with his friends. Since when, and I ask this in complete seriousness, did it become "cool" to go to jail? Have I been hiding under a rock? Is jail really cool now-a-days? Does the youth of today really prefer a stint in jail to a spring break in Mexico?

I recently read a story, written by a 17 year old boy who is currently serving 12 years for armed robbery. This very articulate boy detailed just a small portion of his current surroundings. He talked about being careful when turning in bed not to touch the wall because he did not know how or where the yellowish drip marks on the wall came from. He detailed his dirt-filled cell and how he could not do anything without express permission or order of a guard. This boy explained that he would probably never be able to hug his father again because his father would probably die of kidney cancer before he got out of jail and then elaborated on how hurtful it was to know such a fact. In his declaration, he also admitted to laughing in the courtroom when he was sentenced two years previously, thinking "it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard." Now faced with the reality of his situation, this young man condemns the day he thought it was a "big joke", explaining that "the most important part of [his] life is gone."

The story told by this youngster of only 17 is one that should be innately and solidly implanted into the brains of all teenagers (and adults for that matter). It makes me ill to think that the reason our youths are so far gone in today's society is the simple fact that going to jail is probably preferable to their home lives and that no adults are urging them to see what it really means to go be incarcerated. It should not be something that is "cool" or accepted. Jail is a serious end to a very identifiable means. If you do bad things, you go to a bad place. What is to stop our youths from committing crimes against society if places like jail are painted as the places "you should see"? No wonder our jails are over-crowded and so many first-time offenders return to the cement buildings with fences around them. If the facilities are too quaint to offer real punishment, what is the point of rehabilitation?