The Chicago Public Schools will have to identify students considered at risk for committing future crimes and set up a program to give them tours of a state prison in an attempt to discourage bad behavior under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
State Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), the bill’s Senate sponsor, said it was an outgrowth of frequent meetings he held with parents desperate to find a way to scare their kids away from a life of crime.
“It’s very clear to me that we have 11- and 12- and 13-year-olds now engaged in serious crime, much of it gang crime,” said Hendon. “We get those young people before and not just hand them over to the criminal element out there and let them win.”
But the new law drew a stinging rebuke from the head of the John Howard Association, a prison-reform group, who said it failed to establish clear goals, assessment procedures or quality control. Furthermore, said James “Chip” Coldren, the law raises a question of whether it would stigmatize youngsters as people who indeed are headed for prison.
“What a joke,” Coldren said.
Coldren had pleaded with Blagojevich to use his amendatory veto powers to rewrite the bill rather than sign it, saying in a June letter to the governor that the pilot program could leave students “confused, possibly angry, and certainly no better off.”
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires the Chicago Board of Education to “establish a pilot program to prevent crime by developing guidelines to identify students at risk of committing crimes.” The law does not specify whether the pilot program should be districtwide or confined to a few schools.
The measure also does not clearly describe the kind of misbehavior that would qualify a student for the program, stating only that they must have engaged in “serious acts of misconduct in violation of the board’s policy on discipline.” It requires that students in the program be taken on a guided tour of a state prison but is vague on any other counseling or instruction the students should receive.
The law also states, however, that no child could be sent on a prison tour without the consent of a parent or guardian.
“They get chosen after they’ve already broken some rules,” Hendon said. “Rather than sending them to the penitentiary [as inmates], you get them and take them on a quick tour. I think that’s better than them being told by the judge that they’re a criminal.”
When asked about the measure, Blagojevich said he was not sure he had signed the bill, even though Illinois secretary of state officials said the governor’s office had filed an official notice of the signing hours earlier. Even so, the governor spoke favorably of the measure at a signing ceremony for an unrelated bill.
“What it’s intended to do is to give some kids a chance to see what happens if they don’t follow the rules, follow the law, and what’s ahead for them if they don’t do that,” Blagojevich said. “It’s not necessarily stigmatizing anybody. I think it’s worth a try to take a look at how we’re going to address the fact that too many children are lost too early on.”
Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), a House sponsor of the legislation, said the new law reminded her of the time she visited the Cook County Jail as part of a social studies class when she attended Calumet High School in the 1950s. She said her teacher, who was white, pointed out an African-American female prisoner and suggested she looked like Davis.
“I felt totally humiliated,” recalled Davis, who is black. “However, I must say to you I would never want to be housed in the small, cramped, dark corner of a jail cell.”
Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine’s office also endorsed the law, noting prisoners have been taken to schools to talk to students. Recently three inmates awaiting trial for murder told Bogan High School students about the differences between “life in the joint, the life they used to have, the food they used to eat as opposed to what one inmate described as food he wouldn’t give to his dog,” said John Gorman, a spokesman for Devine.
For years, the Department of Corrections has given tours of prisons at the request of a variety of schools and community groups. Typically no one under age 17 is taken through a prison, where officials talk about the consequences of heavy drinking, doing drugs and teenage pregnancy, officials said.
State prison officials said they will work with the public schools to design the new program.
In addition to prison tours, Hendon said he wanted the program to include taking students to colleges so students also can see examples of positive things they can do with their lives, though that provision is not in the legislation. Davis suggested the program should be expanded to include more than just troublemakers.
Joi Mecks, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools, said district officials were unaware of the bill and were not consulted before its introduction. Still, Mecks said the district is not opposed to it as long as students also receive counseling.
“We want to try to do everything we can to decrease violence in the schools and if that means exposing kids to the results of violent acts–well, we are not against trying that, either,” Mecks said. “If it can prevent our students from going down the path of crime, then we support it.
“But we hope it is much more than simply a tour of prison. We support it if it is a piece of an overall program where students also receive counseling on anger management and conflict resolution.”
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Betsy Clarke, president of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, said her statewide advocacy organization urged the governor to veto the legislation because it appeared to resurrect so-called Scared Straight programs popular in the 1970s and 1980s during which prison inmates related horrific stories to children about life in prison. Clarke said such programs, though once widely embraced, ultimately proved ineffective.
Such blanket approaches to fighting youth crimes do little to reduce recidivism, Clarke said, adding that the most effective programs are tailored for individuals.
Blagojevich recalled a classmate who was 17 years old in 8th grade while everybody else was 13.
“Ultimately what happened to him wasn’t that big of a surprise,” the governor said. “And I think this is a good idea to take a look at and see, giving these kids a chance to see what they are up against and what they will face if they don’t clean up their acts and turn their lives around.”