Blue Fish
04-19-2004, 03:01 PM
Teens visit prison as part of Changing Within program.
By Denny Boyles
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Saturday, April 17, 2004, 5:37 AM)
CORCORAN -- Rodney Wrice is a lifer, in more ways than one.
Just 37, Wrice already has spent 18 years in state prison. Wrice, or Akili, as he is known in prison, is serving a 40-years-to-life sentence for possessing a weapon while incarcerated.
He isn't sure whether he will ever get out.
Jonathon C. is a 17-year-old high school student from Madera who's been kicked out of class for talking back to teachers and already has a juvenile record for a series of serious fights.
Friday, Wrice and 10 other inmates from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility at Corcoran, part of the Changing Within program, met with teenagers from Corcoran, Fresno and Madera high schools chosen for the program by their teachers, or in some cases, their probation officers.
Changing Within is a new variation on the Scared Straight program that organizers hope will show troubled teenagers such as Jonathon the consequences of a life outside law-abiding society.
The teens' visit to the prison started with a screening by correctional officers, who removed hats, covered gang colors and jeans with gray jumpsuits and did their best to make the teens understand how life in prison would be, and how quickly they might end up behind bars if they don't change their lives.
"The California Department of Corrections has a no-hostage policy, so if at any point today or in the future you are taken hostage, the department will not bargain with inmates for your release," Associate Warden Jonathon Cobbs told the students. "If there is an alarm while you are in the facility, prone out. Lie facedown on the ground with your arms spread. If you don't, a yard gunner may think you are involved in a disturbance, and may use lethal force, and we fire no warning shots. Those are the realities of life for inmates."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence O'Neill from Fresno came to the prison to see the program and talk to the students.
O'Neill told the students that in 14 years on the bench, he has sentenced more than 1,000 people to time in state and federal prisons.
O'Neill said every case has made him shake his head and think what a waste it was for the people involved.
"Life is about chances and choices," O'Neill said. "Everyone who appears before me asks for a second chance. But when I look at the choices they have made, most of the time I realize they don't deserve one. Today, each of you has been given a chance to see the end of the road for criminals. This is your chance to make better choices. If you don't, you'll soon be at a point where people like me start making your choices for you."
The inmates involved in Changing Within are all serving long-term sentences, and they all volunteered in the hope that their stories will help a troubled student change his life.
"I ain't ever leaving this place, so if one of you dudes doesn't learn from this opportunity and winds up in here, I'll be waiting for you," Wrice told the students as he and other inmates led them on a tour under the watchful eyes of more than a dozen correctional officers. "I won't be happy to see you."
"Welcome to our world, we have multiple murderers here, people who are never going to go home. This yard, these buildings -- they are our world. And it's a world of pain," inmate Randy Silva Jr. told the students, his shouts barely audible over the heckling of more than 100 inmates who screamed obscenities and taunts at the youths.
Lora Cartwright, an administrator from Kings Lake Alternative school in Corcoran brought five students to Corcoran.
Cartwright, like the inmates and prison officials, hoped the experience would open her students' eyes.
"These students think they are tough, and that they can handle the juvenile prison system," Cartwright said. "This shows them the next step, and the reality of what could happen to them."
"You think you're tough?" an inmate from the crowd screams at Jonathon C.
Wrice quickly singles Jonathon out from the crowd, getting in his face.
"You think you can make it here? You need to look at the people who brought you here and think about this. We are all doing life sentences. If we don't like the way you look at us, we could get to you in a second and no one could help you. Look at your teachers. Listen to them. If you don't, you'll end up in here, and no one here will care about you. In here, you won't be tough. You'll be nothing."
When asked why he thought Wrice had singled him out, Jonathon said he thought it was because he was trying to act tough. When asked whether he felt tough after seeing the prison, Jonathon said no.
"I don't want to come back here; I think this will help me," Jonathon said.
Patrick Acuna, a 30-year-old serving life without the possibility of parole for murder, said he has seen too many teens like Jonathon, inside and outside of prison.
"They think they are so tough, and they are so eager to prove it that they do things that end up putting them in here. Youth crime is an epidemic in our society. I finally got to a point in my life where it's too late to help me, but maybe by taking part in this program I can help them."
Acuna said that if he and his fellow inmates could make one teenager change, it would be worth all the work that went into the program.
"Obviously we are aiming a little higher than that, though. We know it's hard; we've all been in their shoes. We can't take them out of their communities and put them in better ones, and we can't solve their problems. But if we are able to get in, to get past all their walls and their fronts and really make them see that they don't want to end up like us, then maybe we can make our own lives count for something more as well."
The reporter can be reached at dboyles@fresnobee.com or 622-2411
By Denny Boyles
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Saturday, April 17, 2004, 5:37 AM)
CORCORAN -- Rodney Wrice is a lifer, in more ways than one.
Just 37, Wrice already has spent 18 years in state prison. Wrice, or Akili, as he is known in prison, is serving a 40-years-to-life sentence for possessing a weapon while incarcerated.
He isn't sure whether he will ever get out.
Jonathon C. is a 17-year-old high school student from Madera who's been kicked out of class for talking back to teachers and already has a juvenile record for a series of serious fights.
Friday, Wrice and 10 other inmates from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility at Corcoran, part of the Changing Within program, met with teenagers from Corcoran, Fresno and Madera high schools chosen for the program by their teachers, or in some cases, their probation officers.
Changing Within is a new variation on the Scared Straight program that organizers hope will show troubled teenagers such as Jonathon the consequences of a life outside law-abiding society.
The teens' visit to the prison started with a screening by correctional officers, who removed hats, covered gang colors and jeans with gray jumpsuits and did their best to make the teens understand how life in prison would be, and how quickly they might end up behind bars if they don't change their lives.
"The California Department of Corrections has a no-hostage policy, so if at any point today or in the future you are taken hostage, the department will not bargain with inmates for your release," Associate Warden Jonathon Cobbs told the students. "If there is an alarm while you are in the facility, prone out. Lie facedown on the ground with your arms spread. If you don't, a yard gunner may think you are involved in a disturbance, and may use lethal force, and we fire no warning shots. Those are the realities of life for inmates."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence O'Neill from Fresno came to the prison to see the program and talk to the students.
O'Neill told the students that in 14 years on the bench, he has sentenced more than 1,000 people to time in state and federal prisons.
O'Neill said every case has made him shake his head and think what a waste it was for the people involved.
"Life is about chances and choices," O'Neill said. "Everyone who appears before me asks for a second chance. But when I look at the choices they have made, most of the time I realize they don't deserve one. Today, each of you has been given a chance to see the end of the road for criminals. This is your chance to make better choices. If you don't, you'll soon be at a point where people like me start making your choices for you."
The inmates involved in Changing Within are all serving long-term sentences, and they all volunteered in the hope that their stories will help a troubled student change his life.
"I ain't ever leaving this place, so if one of you dudes doesn't learn from this opportunity and winds up in here, I'll be waiting for you," Wrice told the students as he and other inmates led them on a tour under the watchful eyes of more than a dozen correctional officers. "I won't be happy to see you."
"Welcome to our world, we have multiple murderers here, people who are never going to go home. This yard, these buildings -- they are our world. And it's a world of pain," inmate Randy Silva Jr. told the students, his shouts barely audible over the heckling of more than 100 inmates who screamed obscenities and taunts at the youths.
Lora Cartwright, an administrator from Kings Lake Alternative school in Corcoran brought five students to Corcoran.
Cartwright, like the inmates and prison officials, hoped the experience would open her students' eyes.
"These students think they are tough, and that they can handle the juvenile prison system," Cartwright said. "This shows them the next step, and the reality of what could happen to them."
"You think you're tough?" an inmate from the crowd screams at Jonathon C.
Wrice quickly singles Jonathon out from the crowd, getting in his face.
"You think you can make it here? You need to look at the people who brought you here and think about this. We are all doing life sentences. If we don't like the way you look at us, we could get to you in a second and no one could help you. Look at your teachers. Listen to them. If you don't, you'll end up in here, and no one here will care about you. In here, you won't be tough. You'll be nothing."
When asked why he thought Wrice had singled him out, Jonathon said he thought it was because he was trying to act tough. When asked whether he felt tough after seeing the prison, Jonathon said no.
"I don't want to come back here; I think this will help me," Jonathon said.
Patrick Acuna, a 30-year-old serving life without the possibility of parole for murder, said he has seen too many teens like Jonathon, inside and outside of prison.
"They think they are so tough, and they are so eager to prove it that they do things that end up putting them in here. Youth crime is an epidemic in our society. I finally got to a point in my life where it's too late to help me, but maybe by taking part in this program I can help them."
Acuna said that if he and his fellow inmates could make one teenager change, it would be worth all the work that went into the program.
"Obviously we are aiming a little higher than that, though. We know it's hard; we've all been in their shoes. We can't take them out of their communities and put them in better ones, and we can't solve their problems. But if we are able to get in, to get past all their walls and their fronts and really make them see that they don't want to end up like us, then maybe we can make our own lives count for something more as well."
The reporter can be reached at dboyles@fresnobee.com or 622-2411