Kansas Juvenile Justice Graduate Turns Life Around

As Pomp and Circumstance played from a laptop computer, adults, some in prison staff uniforms, and a handful of teenage girls in gray sweat suits, stand in respectful silence.
Finally, a solitary young woman in a red gown pushes her way through a heavy green security door, which slams with cold severity behind her. The door’s blast doesn’t faze her, however. She’s heard it before. She smiles sheepishly, but holds her head high, her eyes fixed straight ahead.
Emily won’t celebrate her graduation with any parties at her home. She won’t be toasted at any restaurants by family and friends. Instead she’ll spend another night at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka.
But it will be her last. She’s going home for good the next day, to live with her mother, to start a new life.
Emily enrolled in a Topeka area high school in the fall of 2011, ready for a senior year like most students experience – going to ball games, participating in activities, maybe even attending the prom in the spring.
But Emily’s plans were interrupted. After several stints in foster care and juvenile facilities, and a short stay with her father in Mississippi, Emily was informed that her near future would be spent at the lock-down facility for juveniles in Topeka, serving time for previous convictions.

“I expected it actually,” Emily admits, looking back on the day she learned she would be sent to KJCC. “I was kind of upset to not finish there (at the public school), knowing I would miss out socially and academically. I wanted to have a job and be with my mom.”
But now, with her mother sitting next to her, dabbing tears from her eyes and patting her daughter’s arm, Emily speculates that had she not attended Lawrence Gardner High School for residents of KJCC, she would not have successfully completed her senior year, which finally came to a close with the ceremony on Jan. 8.
“I needed an eye-opener,” Emily recalls. “I wasn’t committed to doing what I needed to do then. I was making a lot of the wrong choices, not putting in the effort. But when I got here I said ‘I don’t want to live my life like this. I want to accomplish things.’”
Emily could no longer hang out with her friends, no longer go on dates or go to the mall or to the movies. But what she could do was get her life headed in the right direction. And she decided to seize the opportunity.
“She has been very driven towards her future, taking advantage of every opportunity we have to offer her,” said Mary McDonald, a teacher at the fully accredited high school designed to meet the needs of students housed in the complex. The special-purpose school, run by the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, often called “Greenbush,” prepares students to successfully reintegrate into their previous school, or to complete their high school education while in the juvenile justice system.
Lawrence Gardner High School (LGHS), named after a former educator at the facility, serves between 500 and 600 students a year. It holds multiple graduation ceremonies each year as students progress through the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) system. Male and female residents of KJCC are educated separately.
At KJCC, Emily completed nearly all the coursework she needed for high school last fall. Maintaining her motivation, she pushed for additional opportunities. She entered a work-study program that allowed her to earn money as well as elective credits, learning sewing and textiles. She completed a life skills course, as well as a child development course. And she worked before and after school in the laundry facility.
Items she made in her textiles program were on display at the graduation – colorful aprons, pillow cases and bags – but Emily has already donated several of her products to the Topeka Rescue Mission.
Emily wasn’t always a model student at KJCC. Far from it.
Patti Welbourne brought a laugh from the crowd when she pulled out several sheets of paper – “This isn’t your diploma. This is your behavior log.”
“This shows what a journey we’ve been on,” said Welbourne, the lead instructor for the female residents at KJCC. “But you went from getting six, seven write-ups a week to two, then one, and for these past few weeks there have been write-ups, but they’ve all been only positive behavior marks.”
Terri Williams, Acting Commissioner of JJA, said she shares a personal trait with the graduate, who another speaker likened to a young stallion just learning to harness its powerful spirit.
“You may not know it, but I’m a little bit stubborn myself,” Williams said to the laughter of the KJCC staff. “But it’s ok to be stubborn in your focused determination to achieve your goals.”
“At first I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to be here, but, the teachers here didn’t ever give up on me,” Emily said. “They were committed to walking me through to the goal.
“Now I’m kind of glad that it happened because I got the opportunity to do what not everybody does, getting my diploma.”
That diploma could prove integral to success in Emily’s future. Williams said a diploma tends to mean about $250,000 difference in earnings over the course of a career.
“Education is key in helping you get where you want to go in life,” said LGHS Education Director Gregg Nielson. “Getting your diploma is one step of many steps these young people will make in their working career.”
Emily’s mother said she appreciates all the hard work the LGHS staff did to help her daughter. She said she received regular communication from the staff, which helped her feel involved in the process.
“It was wonderful to hear positive feedback, which I hadn’t had for a long time,” said the student’s mother. “It was so good to have others see the good in her that I see. “
So now the bigger challenge begins for Emily – moving home to begin her new life.
“I’m excited but nervous,” confessed Emily. “I’ve been here 10 months. I’m afraid I won’t make all the right choices, because I know that a wrong choice could send me back here.”
Emily will have a community supervision officer who will help keep her accountable and guide her through the transition. Rather than an authority figure, Emily sees the supervision officer as an advocate and a support that she needs to help her succeed.
She said her first priority will be to line up a job and to inquire about further educational opportunities. Emily said she hopes to study nursing and cosmetology.
Emily’s mother said she most looks forward to having her daughter home to share the day-to-day experiences.
“I know she’s changed, but I want to see it consistently, living together, not just in three-hour visits,” Emily’s mother said between tear-choked breaths. “We’ve missed the last year together. We’ve got lots of lost time to make up.”  

Todd Fertig is Publications Writer for the Kansas Department of Corrections.
 
 
 
 
 
 *Photo at top by Flickr user rkleine