- 'ww-www- Fwr-T- I- . - U- .U a. .- = , memmojprp fy~uaa, ~piis Page 4-Sunday, April 15, 1979-The Michigan Daily Inmaes at JOLT. HE MORNING sun starkly silhouettes the 40- oot high walls of the world's largest walled prison, Southern Michigan Prison (SMP) at Jackson: Outside the sprawling complex, ominous guard towers loom over the prison yard. Inside, green-jacketed corrections officials hurry to their posts, handcuffs and retaining chains dangling from in the process, their belts, walkie-talkies slung over their morning I wake shoulders, and the threatening shape of a pistol frightened too." bulging through their jackets. The Wayne C A Wayne County van pulls up to the main gate. enter the prison Four young men, about 15 or 16 years old, are ac- showing no sign companied by their parents and juvenile authorities breaking ande as they enter the prison. The well-dressed boys weapon, or purse glance around nervously at the alien surroundings. floor, shuffling t] They seem like any other high school students, with ds into their pocks one striking exception: each has been convicted of a A corrections o felony, and today, each will be JOLT-ed by the har- is led to the inta sh realities of prison life. Block, the Recep JOLT, an acronym for Juvenile Offenders Learn the bars of thee Truth, is a disarming crime deterrent program run and their parents by the inmates of Jackson Prison. It began in 1975 in dull thud the doo the mind of one man, Pat Duffy, then president of begins to sink in the SMP Jaycees. With a group of other concerned, doors open again but hard-core convicts, he formed a committee and Dr. John Prel began outlining on paper the program that today tion Center, mee exposes young offenders to the horrid realities of experience to th the living hell called Jackson. run totally by thi "We don't bullshit the kids, we just tell them the The people involv brutal facts about the savage murders, the terrible not very nice pe conditions, the rapes, and life in this hell," ex- the negative as plained JOLT committeeman Tony Bercheny. Con- going to be a loto victed of attempted murder, Bercheny is serving an confrontation, an 18-to-40-year sentence. "We don't try to use in- by the inmates.I timidations or scare tactics to get to the kids. We ticipate?" he ask: feel the experience is bad enough. If they get scared "Okay, let's st -- . 4 - - ,:7- T 7 - - - '- , - I The Michigan Daily-Sunday, April fo; r good up, ounty n. T s tha ente e sna -heir bets. office ke r ption elect s ent r clos . It w to le esnik ts the e boy he re ved a ople pects of ex nd the Do y ks th tart V ffice er se Jackson State Prison juveniles straight Hendricks-tells the parents, who have been led to another room in the prison to meet with some JOLT By R on G iffordcommittee members. "The cons treat them like the little kids they are. They may be tough guys in the streets, but that streetwise bullshit doesn't stand up one bit against a hardened con." I for them. I'm scared every herded into the tank, a room about 10 feet wide and "They think they'll be able to handle it in here," so I've got a feeling they'll be 20 feet long. Jutting from the wall, a small, hard Bercheny says. "They're wrong, all wrong. Prison bench provides the only relief from standing for a is a fight for survival, where you learn to live or die. group waits to be cleared to new prisoner. In one corner of the caged room sits A few tough kids will end up in here - but as he boys are unusually quiet, someone's old lady, or at least raped once or twice." t they have been convicted of "The kids are going to learn that there are bears, ring, carrying a concealed foxes, and victims in the prison," Bercheny tells the tching. They look down at the parents. "The bears take whatever they can get, feet slowly, shoving their han- however they can get it. The foxes outwit people for what they want, and then there are the punks like e arrives, and the small group your sons who are the victims, who get taken for oom - the "bubble" of Seven everything they've got." and Guidance Center. Slowly --E ronic door open, and the boys -A T 6'3" AND 200 pounds, "Little" John Dor- er a small caged room. With a tch, one of the JOLT "actors," plays a very ses and the reality of prison life I convincing role as a bear. Inside the cell he vill be a long time before those ambles up to one of the young boys and takes his t them out. '" hand. On one finger he slips a ring. "You're my , superintendent of the Recep- sissy now. We're married." The boy backs away at Sgroup, and explains the JOL T UVENILEthe homosexual innuendo, but there is no place to sidents, not b the institutionDELINQUENCY go. Over and over the JOLT experience reinforces s' ents: Thisio na -U that fact. The boys are told that if someone wants are for the most part lifers, and you for something, they-will usually get you. "A guy . They are going to emphasize was standing in line and a dude stuck (stabbed) him s of the prison life. There is in the back three times," Dortch, who is serving two plicit language in the intensive an open, foul-smelling toilet. There is nothing for natural life sentences, said, "When he fell to the e boys will be verbally abused the prisoner to do but wait for processing. ground, the guy with the knife realized he had stab- ou still want your sons to par- A JOLT committee member, James ("My friends bed the wrong person. So he said he was sorry and e parents. Each approves. call me Jimmy") Hendricks, leads the parents out left." them through," Prelesnik tells of the bubble into Seven Block. As they leave, one Although the official count is much lower, the in- rs. mother glances back at her son, who is sitting on the mates claim there are at least two assaults a day in et of barred doors, the boys are bench in the tank with his head in his hands. A the prison, and countless other robberies and worried look crosses her face. It will be several crimes. Six men have been murdered here since hours before she sees him again. January 1. "There's a lot of dead bodies floating in "There are 510 men in this block," Hendricks, this place," one inmate said. who is serving a life sentence, tells the group as it From the cell, the young offenders are taken to moves into the dining area. The long, dimly-lit Room 21, the site of JOLT's intensive confrontation. building is hot and muggy, and five stories of cages Outsiders are excluded from this meeting, where rise above the area. "The men are kept here until the boys meet four or five JOLT Members and talk they are reclassified and moved either to another about the boys' problems. A corrections officer is prison or another block." present in the room, but that's more for the Inside the tiny cells the men constantly fight prisoners' protection than for the juveniles. "Some cockroaches and spiders. Each cell is equipped with of the kids try to spit on the convicts, kick them, or a broken-down bed; a table or dresser, and a rank, hit them," said Hendricks. filthy toilet and sink in one corner. Locked in their "We don't try to talk about superficial things. We cells, the prisoners either lie on their beds or pace try to get at the root of the problem," Bercheny back and forth like caged animals. Their glazed, said. "There are no movie stars here, no Superflies. sunken eyes are dulled, staring ahead but seeing That stuff on TV, where a guy goes to jail in the nothing. show, and is back on the street after a commercial, Several of the inmates come to life, however, is just bullshit." when the group passes their cells. The boys' Real life inside the prison, not'the fake Hollywood mothers are taunted and verbally abused by crude glamor, is discussed. The cons tell they boys they The "chow area" of Seven Block, the reception and guidance center, is one of the few places other than his cell that an inmate Ron Gifford is the Daily Labor reporter. the corrections o Through anoth obscenities. "Hey, baby, stop in fer awhile, okay?" a prisoner jeers at them. The women can move on, though, and leave the cell block and its repulsiveness. Elsewhere in the complex, their sons do not have that privilege. Were the juvenile delinquents actual prisoners at Jackson, they would be stripped and removed of their possessions. "No one takes anything into the prison but their sentences," the boys are told. One by one, the men are herded into a quick shower, and are squirted down with a stinging, odorous disinfec- tant. A mock session in the "bullpen" gives the boys a taste of real prison life. All paperwork is done here, and the youths are fingerprinted, photographed, and given a cell assignment. They are, for all prac- tical purposes of the JOLT program, inmates at Jackson Prison. Put into a cell for 20-25 minutes, the young offen- ders begin to experience the horrors of living hell. Several inmates, members of the JOLT "theatrics" committee, immediately start verbally abusing them. The boys are pressured by the inmates to give them gum, clothing, money, and sex. "The kids come in thinking they're real tough," Photos by Maureen O'Malley will lose everything in prison - their families, their friends, perhaps even their lives. "Everyone will 'forget about you, except for your mom and dad. Yes, the same ones you tell to kiss your ass today will be the only ones in the whole world who will care about you tomorrow." Prison is nothing but violence, degradation, and loneliness, the boys find out. "As a man, you have a responsibility to act like a man. You should respect your family, not treat them like dirt," an inmate tells them. Hendricks and Bercheny speak to the parents, trying to help them help their sons. "We're not asking you to approve of what we've done. We're not asking you to like us. We're only asking that you help the JOLT program help your children before it is too late!" The Department of Corrections requires that parents must accompany their child because "if a kid's own parent won't spend three or four hours to help stop their kid's bullshit, then the youngster has even bigger problems," Bercheny said. "Your kids have got something we don't have," Dortch tells the parents. "That thing is love. There is no love in here. There's no compassion or any feelings, because that calls for tenderness and emotion. In here, that is perceived as a sign of weakness, and if they think you're weak, the other cons will try to get you for everything you've got." - "You only have one feeling in here: fear. I wake up every morning wondering if I will be killed today, or if I will have to kill someone in order to live," Dortch says matter-of-factly. "We try to impress on them that Mom and Dad are not the enemies. The jive-ass bitches who they think are cool are their real enemies, and in here we try to give your kids the tools to work with so they can get out of that situation back on the streets," Bercheny stresses. The parents are asked why they are here. "I want to help my son," one mother says. "It got to the point, that with all the constant conflict, I wanted to take a gun and shoot my own son. I don't want to feel like that." The intensive confrontation, ends, and the juveniles, their parents, and the JOLT committee members are all united in another room. "There were no smartasses in the room, no problems," one of the JOLT Members tells the parents. "I think all four can be helped." "We told each of the boys things that he can use to help him when he leaves-oday," another member said of the confrontation. "We tried to give him a front to put up for his 'cool' buddies, so he can resist them. The whole purpose of this meeting was to show the boys they can say 'no' to his friends about crime." The focus of the discussion turns from the inmates to the boys themselves. Before the intensive con- frontation, the boys had a smug attitude towards their parents, ignoring them and maintaining a cer- tain aloofness. Now they .sit as close as possible to their parents, addressing them as "ma'am" and "sir," holding their hands to the point of clutching their mothers' arms like security blankets. See JOLT, Page 8 JOLT member Tony Bercheuy (left) and JOLTchairman Bill Lovitt emphasize the entry into Jackson, which is done through the "bubble" pictured above. The.sight of handcuffs and restraining chains, like cells, become a standard part of every inmate's life.