Fountain of Youthful Offenders

Once a month, a batch of new teens/young adults arrive at our prison to start the Youthful Offender System (YOS), a program that focuses on education. Completion of this several year, multi-phase program will shorten the prison sentence for offenders age 13-21. (The vast majority of the inmates in my prison are women, but some youth and adult males are in a separate area of the prison for a short term.) The first month of YOS is a boot camp, and day one of boot camp includes a military-like welcome and subsequent parade through the medical, dental and psychiatry clinics. My boss warned me that "there would be a lot of yelling in clinic" when the youth came for their medical exams. I would never have made it in the military.

Just after noon, seven teenage boys in yellow jumpsuits enter the clinic scooting along the hallway walls with canteens over their heads while drill sergeants yell and, at times taunt them. Meanwhile, one woman with a video camera follows them around documenting everything. (My only guess is that this is to ensure the tough love/breaking in is humane and follows some kind of standard?) My job is to basically do a sports physical on the youth to ensure they are cleared for the physically rigorous boot camp, all the while trying to keep a straight face when they answer "ma'am, yes ma'am!" and "ma'am, no ma'am!" to my medical questions. I had one kid today say "ma'am, no ma'am to 8 question in a row, and when I tried to ask an open ended question, he said "ma'am, none ma'am!" (Another funny moment: me "have you seen your tongue? does it always looked like that?" Youthful Offender "ma'am, yes ma'am!" It was the strangest tongue I've ever seen!)

All the ma'am responses drive me a little crazy, and I gave one of the drill sergeants a dirty look for scolding one of my patients when he just answered "yes." And don't be the kid who says "ma'am, no sir" to a drill sergeant, because that does not go over well.

Coming up tomorrow, there will be a multidisciplinary debriefing and potluck, where the staff discuss each offender's medical, psychosocial, education, legal, and gang background before the youth go to the yard for their "exercises." The debriefing last month broke my heart. Most of the kids never even had a chance. Hopefully, they can get through YOS and get their lives on track. And until they do, I will keep tending to the broken noses and busted up lips from the fights that break out at the main YOS campus down the hill.