Juvenile detention counselor stories in response to https://imgur.com/gallery/JqxmwOR

didnt realize the link in my title didnt workhttps://imgur.com/gallery/JqxmwOR

First day, just got done in h.r. signing my hiring paperwork. Walk onto the unit and make direct eye contact with a kid (who was supposed to be in school but had been sent back) jerking it in the kitchen(likely because the cameras didnt show the kitchen). Kid establishes dominance and continues, I immediately question every life decision that brought me here.

This is one that will stay with me til I die. Working an overnight and we have to shine a flashlight into each kids room every 15 minutes to verify that they are in fact there and more importantly alive. During my 3rd check for the night I discovered a kid attempting to hang himself with his sheet. Long story short I call for backup, go in and stop him, have a heart to heart for a few hours then proceed to watch this kid truly invest in his therapy, grow considerably and eventually leave the program. Less than a year later we get a report that he killed his girlfriend Andes facing life in prison...

Anytime a unit needed help (99% it was the violent offenders Unit obviously) we would get a radio call to assist. Week 1 I got called up to help with a kid who was freaking out and had halfway kicked out his window to escape. (Basically just stood in his room where he was sitting on his bed, next to his pillow, while his staff deescalated him. ) Once he was calm we moved him to another room and then went back to clean his old room only to discover he had 4 sharp pieces of metal that he had broken out of his overhead air conditioning vent hidden beneath the pillow. This kid came to us because he stabbed 2 kids at his school. I was a little shoo ken up the rest of that day.

Contrary to what most people believe, only 5-10% of sex offenders are actually pedophiles. (The majority just take advantage of what’s available to them, which is usually children. By that I mean they aren’t attracted to kids specifically, they just lack the social skills to develop healthy sexual relationships with people their own age, therefor they take advantage of whatever else is available) during my time I only worked with 7 kids (out of several hundred)who were clinically classified pedophiles. This one was the worst. Not only could he not remember the names of all his victims but he specifically stated his plan to garner more, should he ever be released.

Of the kids I worked with, this was the youngest. (He was only 9 when he came into our care). All the kids were allowed 1 weekly family visit which was always staff supervised. This particular kid, however, was with us for 2 1/2 years (the average stay was 6-9 months). During his treatment his mom issued every sort of complaint she could about staff, enough so, that his last year he was given unsupervised visits with his mom and sister, in a small meeting room next to our unit supervisors office. (I know this sounds ridiculous but as long as a parent was in the room we never in a million years assumed that anything could happen)We always had a staff member right outside and after several months we discovered that not only had he been molesting his cousin but also his sister and his mom was literally letting him continue to do it during their visits while she sat in the room!

First off all the kids on the VO unit were obviously ‘tough guys’ who constantly felt like they had to prove themselves. This lead to multiple fights a day which lead to multiple restraints a day. The ‘funniest’ one I was involved in was a fight between 2 17 yr olds who were both 200 lbs+. It took 6 staff 45 minutes to restrain and calm these knuckleheads and when it was all said and done we found out the reason for the fight was because one had told the other he could borrow his DS for 15 minutes if he let him, ahem, explore his bat cave with his wing wang. Long story short(ish) after the deed was done the receiver claimed the DS was dead and the giver refused to allow him to use the charger. Also no joke the very next day I saw one of these kids calling a kid from a different unit gay because he was wearing a pink shirt.
EDIT: I’m working on a part 2 of stories. Will be posted tonight
edit part 2 here https://imgur.com/gallery/wn1HFGT. Edit part 3 https://imgur.com/gallery/0MxSPJl