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A WINCONSIN PUBLIC TV FEATURE THIS WEEK WPT explores life behind bars
The segregation unit at the Green Bay Correctional
Institution has The Teen Connection "Welcome to My House" program is not really a welcome, and the house is not really any place teens want to call home. "My house" is how inmates refer to their cells at Green Bay Correctional Institution, where teens talk about their lives behind bars for a Wisconsin Public Television program tonight. Some of their comments:
In an unusual "Teen Connection" program, four young men share their stories from prison for a live broadcast and others contribute through excerpts from a videotape by inmates. Producer and director Eileen Littig has assembled a panel of experts including, among others, Frank Smith. He earned his credentials the hard way - doing five years with four attempts on his life in a California prison. He survived his teen years on the outside but ended up spending his 22nd to 27th years trying to survive inside. Now 42 and living in Green Bay, he's a husband, a father of five, a catering company owner, volunteer director of a club for fathers and facilitator for a high school "cultural mix" class. "I work with a lot of young men and women that have not made it to juvenile. My job is try to prevent it," he says about his work at East High School in Green Bay. "You can talk till your head turns blue, but when they see this program and these young people incarcerated ..." He's talking about people like the inmate who says: "One of the saddest things I get to hear is young men tell me, 'I don't care if I go to prison. It's no big deal to go to prison. Who cares?' Let me tell ya, that's the voice of someone who's never seen the inside of a prison." "Teen Connection" opens the doors to cells that range from 55 to 60 square feet for one or two people. It's crowded and getting worse at Green Bay Correctional Institution, which was built for 749 but - with "double-celling" and temporary dormitories - can fit up to 1,081. Population as of 6:30 a.m. Friday, according to Warden Dan Bertrand: 1,074, with 203 under age 21. About 70 are ages 15 to 19, and they're looking at anywhere from a year to life. One inmate videotaped by his peers says: "My parole eligibility is Jan. 1, 2075. I'll be 102 years old, but they never let you out on your first try so ..." Bertrand, in a phone interview, talks about youth he meets through speaking engagements around the state: "There are kids out there who say, 'My uncle's in prison, my brother's gone.' There are some areas of our state where it's a tradition, a rite of passage. We're trying to get the message out: It's not cool. It's not fun. If you do the wrong thing, it's your life." That's why he has given his blessing to a project that began when Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton visited the institution and helped get a series of connections rolling with prison teachers, Green Bay business people who donated $7,000 for video and editing equipment and Eileen Littig, "Teen Connection" producer and director, who is using several minutes of the inmates' video in tonight's program. A longer version of their videotape will premiere on Oct. 25 at the Green Bay prison and then be shown through organizations serving youth. "It's kind of a tour of the facility by inmates talking about what it's like to be here," said Bertrand, who explained that the video is an extension of a long-standing program bringing troubled youth in for tours and discussions with inmates. "If we can stop one kid from coming through the door, I feel we've been successful." Sandra Kallio http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/features/index.php?ntid=11934&ntpid=1
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