Hoping to keep kids from going to prison!
So here’s the thing. I can be pretty quick to criticize wardens and prison staffers here in Michigan when I think that what they’re doing is wrong. BUT. Then I darn well better be up front with praise when I think something is good. And that’s where I am today. Several Michigan prisons have undertaken a project called the Juvenile Deterrent Program. It’s a mentoring program, designed to keep troubled teens from winding up in the state prison system. Among those prisons embarking on this project is the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility, right next door in Muskegon. Here’s how it works. Prisoners are used to mentor juvenile delinquents who are on probation in that hope that they will deter and dissuade them from continuing in this negative behavior pattern. They’re quick to point out to these kids that if they stay on that path, it leads to a room behind bars. And to her credit, prisoners are telling us that Warden Shirlee Harry has announced that