referring to: http://juvenilehallwriting.blogspot.com/
The effort’s of California’s Fresno and Butte county to give America’s ostracized youth a vehicle to express themselves. The teens writing on this blog were not writing with the structure of an essay- they were writing in a very raw and poetic way. The first post I chose to analyze opens up with “Time sits on my hands like a whale”. Alone, this sentence is a simple simile worth praise had it come from a 3rd grader. However, contextualized the sentence evokes strong sentiments of nostalgia and regret. This writer successfully makes the reader empathize with them. Not by using exclamation points or several adjectives. In fact, the writer uses very short and blunt sentences that come off as cold and lonely. This is probably the only context in which writing without any stylistic additions comes off as an intriguing style in itself.
The author of the entry solicits themselves as a juvenile delinquent very openly and unapologetically; admitting that the crime they committed was one that they have “already done a thousand times”. This gives us the idea of getting a experienced/veteran juvenile delinquents perspective of what it is like. That in itself is intriguing because both criminals and young people are rarely listened to…the combination makes the chances even slimmer.
While the voice of the reader is incredibly strong in being so simple, I don’t think the author thought to intentionally write in one way over another. However, their repeated description of the time is one aspect of their writing that seemed intentionally positioned to make the post seem as long as their prison sentence! It is clear that there were no complaints about the work, the environment, or any other aspect of life behind bars. The only concern was time, and the time away from their family. I am making it sound like THE most boring piece of writing ever, so I encourage all you readers to check out the blog for yourself! It is surreal how the lack of structure, description, and creative punctuation make for such a strong voice.
The second post on this blog that stood out was in the form of a poem. Once again, the writer is writing while incarcerated. If I were to describe her voice in one word I would say “nostalgia”. She writes about her past as if she woke up in a cell and had no idea what she did to get there. Each line in the poem starts with either “I am” “I will” “I was” and it is almost like I am transported into her deepest reflections. Again, the language is simple, accessible, and clean. Every sentence has a point and it is clear from the beginning until the end.
This writing exercise- especially for youth who are or were incarcerated- appears to be an effective way of reflecting and rehabilitating. The posts that are on the site are full of regret as well as hope. The American Juvenile Justice system is (in theory) dedicated to rehabilitation over punishment so that those who are young can have a life outside of incarceration. However programs like that of Fresno/Butte county that allow for this type of writing come far and few in between. Even when there is a venue for the young incarcerated voice, the judicial systems continue to seem deaf to their sounds.
