A real life lesson

Prisoners, guards show students about what goes on inside Old Colony Prison through Project Youth program

The bus ride lasted about 45 minutes. In the beginning, it was a regular ride. The bus was full of about 50 students, and the kids were joking around and listening to music. But when we were about 10 minutes away, everyone started to get serious.

We were headed to prison.

On Oct. 24, Mrs. Hoffman’s law classes from Watertown High School went on a field trip to a real prison. The students went to Old Colony Prison in Bridgewater, Mass., and attended a program called Project Youth.

We had a dress code. The boys had to wear jeans or regular pants, a plain shirt with no writing on it, and sneakers. The girls had to be covered up, with regular jeans or pants, and they couldn’t wear any jewelry or earrings.

When we got there, we went through all the regular procedures as visitors to the prison. Everyone was paired up with a buddy.

“You always need a buddy in prison,” said one of the guards.

The students and teachers had to go through a metal detector. We were patted down/ We had to take off our belt and our shoes. It was just like going through an airport — except more intense.

When we were cleared, we walked outside. It was surrounded by fences with barbed wire. We entered a room that looked like a play room for children. It had two vending machines and chairs for friends and family to sit.

If the same students were on a normal field trip, they would have been joking, acting obnoxious, and talking loud. Instead, they were locked into their chairs, not knowing what to expect, not knowing what was going to happen next.

W were introduced to six prisoners. They were wearing blue shirts, blue jeans, and whatever shoes their family sent. They told us about their crimes and sentences. They also told us why they were in jail.

They took us from the visiting room across into a smaller room where they visit their families when they are bad. It was the typical visiting space like you always see in the movies, behind the glass with a phone on each side.

We all sat back down to hear the stories of the criminals’ lives. They told us how prison is segregated and how life is inside a cell for 24 hours.

A guard told us how one prisoner doesn’t ever leave his cell.

“That guy really threw his life away,” said the guard.

 

After they were done talking, we were allowed to ask the prisoners any questions that were on our minds. Afterward, the six prisoners had to return to their cells for a head count.

Project Youth is one of the jobs and programs prisoners can participate in. A prisoner can work and earn money doing things like laundry or cleaning. They get half of the money then and the other half goes into a bank for when they get out — unless you have a life sentence, and then you get all of the money.

We headed upstairs and got to see a K9 team search the mail. The dog went down and sniffed about 15 pieces of mail and kicked aside three pieces with his paw, and those packages were to be searched.

After the K9 went back into his cage, we got to see the prisons weapon display. All of the weapons and knives were locked in a case. There were pieces of fence post, metal ties, and a tattoo pen.

We learned that many names that of people in the news were inside the prison.

We also got to ask the guards some questions. We also got to ask anything we wanted. A student asked about the significance of a teardrop tattoo on some prisoners’ faces. The guard said, “It usually means that you have taken a life.”

Then it was time to go. We all piled back into the bus to go back to Watertown.

Everyone was relieved to finally back on the bus. After a while, after we started driving away from the prison, everyone’s mood lifted.

It was a regular field trip again.

–Nov. 21, 2013–