A La Aspie

Most long time readers will know that my 9 year old some has some issues with impulse control and behavior in school and socially. This is, in large part, due to his Asperger’s Syndrome and in small (but not inconsequentially) part due to a very highly intelligent mind and strong will.

He is consistently disciplined and rewarded at home and I’m very involved in his world but it’s just not sinking in. And where his disability is concerned, only seen and experienced consequences help. Where zero tolerance and potentially legally dangerous acts are concerned, waiting for legal consequences is not an option I want to explore. So I decided to take him to the San Diego Juvenile Hall Open House.

It was absolutely fabulous. There were booths set up outside, first of all, so while you’re waiting in line to go on the tour, you’re passing educational booths about the facilities and county programs for crime avoidance. Ethan got to see what inmates wear and eat, handcuffs, pictures of inmates doing hard work and get a real taste of life in Juvie before we even went inside.

When we got inside, the kids, Ethan included, were lined up in the front of the tour, shortest to tallest. They were told right away that everyone under 18 was being detained for the next 20 minutes against their will. Right away, officers started yelling at them to straighten the lines up and tuck their shirts in and fold their arms the right way and it was like all 20 kids just totally zipped it up. The looks on their faces were priceless.

We went through each area of the facility and in each area, they were given a very gritty rundown of things like schedules, chores, responsibilities, discipline etc. They were warned about ill behavior at home and school and how it could land them there by people other than their parents. Every step of the way, they were very sternly treated and reminded about their behavior.

We saw bare exercise yards, sparse rooms with cots, bathrooms with no privacy, school classrooms, shared clothing, gross food and a really, truly, disciplinary environment. There was nothing that the kids could grab onto to say ‘it wouldnt be that bad’. By the end of the tour, they were satisfactorily sobered.

I took someone who had been in that juvenile facility as a kid and he was very clear that had he seen this as a kid, it would have been a deterrent. I know *I* surely would have been scared. It’s one thing to hear your parents harp on it, it’s another to see it first hand and hear cops tell you about it without your parents talking to them first.

When we left the tour, we went to booths about gangs, weapons and drugs and they had in depth displays that the kids could look at and actually see drugs and drug paraphernalia and gang related stuff so that they know what they are looking at when they see it.

I highly recommend this for any even borderline kid.

Also may have been crossposted to my Asperger's Syndrome blog on Trusera.com, a site where people show health related stories. Check it out!