Paul Volponi's Blog - Posts Tagged "teens-in-jail"
Riker High (Novel)
Yes, it’s absolutely true (as seen in my novel Rikers High), while teaching on Rikers Island I once handed a student there a Get Out of Jail Free card from a Monopoly game. We all smiled and laughed about it, until that student took the card to the captain on duty and presented it to him. In response, that captain literally kicked the student’s behind all the way back to his living quarters.
Over the last few months, with so many high schools and middle schools teaching Rikers High, I’ve received a lot of inquiries from teachers and students who’ve seen the articles in several New York newspapers questioning whether teenagers awaiting trial there are physically abused by correction officers.
Well, I was there almost every day from 1992 to 1998 teaching teens to read and write, go for high school credits, or study for the GED. I wrote the book Rikers High to give readers a look at what really happens to teens behind bars inside the world’s largest and most violent jail. Because I want you to believe this, and it’s an absolute fact—if you were to take your students on a tour of the jail, or if a political figure or advocacy group went through the place, they’d never see what really happens there day-to-day—they wouldn’t let you see it. They’d clean it up and sanitize it for you. The only way you can really see what happens to teens on Rikers is to work there, at which point you become a part of the scenery, and officers act in front of you as they normally would.
Now, am I contending that all COs are physically out-of-control with teens? No, I am not. I’ve probably seen an equal number of positive circumstances (CO’s getting a kid an old coat for the winter, or giving a heart-felt speech about what education means, or speaking to students about not spending their lives being incarcerated). But violence was a prominent means to control the kids there. Imagine having a CO open the door to your classroom and shove in a student who has just been slapped around. As a teacher, you’re expected to just ignore that and continue teaching (but that rarely happens). Remember, you can have a school inside of a jail. But you can’t make the jail part of the equation just disappear.
Here’s a real-life incident: a student who was angry about his report card grade from a teacher who didn’t even know his name (yes, there are report cards in jail and the students are mostly excited to receive them), balled up his fist to the teacher while standing about 15 feet away. As soon as the student did that, a CO punched him in the head for threatening a staff member. Unfortunately, the student hit his head on the door frame and cut himself. So now he had to go to the clinic for stitches. There was going to be paperwork and the officer couldn’t pretend that it never happened. What was the CO’s immediate problem? There was a mark on the student but no mark on that officer to justify the punch. So what happened? Well, the CO disappeared into a little room by himself, and then came back out with a swollen eye. He wrote a bogus report about how the student attacked him, and recruited a number of the students to sign it in return for extra phone time that night (the entire incident is detailed in the novel).
If you want to experience what life on Rikers Island is really like for teens, read Rikers High. I am very proud of it and the recognition it has received from the American Library Association (Quick Pick Top Ten, inspiring non-readers to read). The book is available in most public libraries around the US—Paul Volponi.
Check out author K.M Weiland talking about the novel on YouTube. She has an interesting take on it- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVmal...
Over the last few months, with so many high schools and middle schools teaching Rikers High, I’ve received a lot of inquiries from teachers and students who’ve seen the articles in several New York newspapers questioning whether teenagers awaiting trial there are physically abused by correction officers.
Well, I was there almost every day from 1992 to 1998 teaching teens to read and write, go for high school credits, or study for the GED. I wrote the book Rikers High to give readers a look at what really happens to teens behind bars inside the world’s largest and most violent jail. Because I want you to believe this, and it’s an absolute fact—if you were to take your students on a tour of the jail, or if a political figure or advocacy group went through the place, they’d never see what really happens there day-to-day—they wouldn’t let you see it. They’d clean it up and sanitize it for you. The only way you can really see what happens to teens on Rikers is to work there, at which point you become a part of the scenery, and officers act in front of you as they normally would.
Now, am I contending that all COs are physically out-of-control with teens? No, I am not. I’ve probably seen an equal number of positive circumstances (CO’s getting a kid an old coat for the winter, or giving a heart-felt speech about what education means, or speaking to students about not spending their lives being incarcerated). But violence was a prominent means to control the kids there. Imagine having a CO open the door to your classroom and shove in a student who has just been slapped around. As a teacher, you’re expected to just ignore that and continue teaching (but that rarely happens). Remember, you can have a school inside of a jail. But you can’t make the jail part of the equation just disappear.
Here’s a real-life incident: a student who was angry about his report card grade from a teacher who didn’t even know his name (yes, there are report cards in jail and the students are mostly excited to receive them), balled up his fist to the teacher while standing about 15 feet away. As soon as the student did that, a CO punched him in the head for threatening a staff member. Unfortunately, the student hit his head on the door frame and cut himself. So now he had to go to the clinic for stitches. There was going to be paperwork and the officer couldn’t pretend that it never happened. What was the CO’s immediate problem? There was a mark on the student but no mark on that officer to justify the punch. So what happened? Well, the CO disappeared into a little room by himself, and then came back out with a swollen eye. He wrote a bogus report about how the student attacked him, and recruited a number of the students to sign it in return for extra phone time that night (the entire incident is detailed in the novel).
If you want to experience what life on Rikers Island is really like for teens, read Rikers High. I am very proud of it and the recognition it has received from the American Library Association (Quick Pick Top Ten, inspiring non-readers to read). The book is available in most public libraries around the US—Paul Volponi.
Check out author K.M Weiland talking about the novel on YouTube. She has an interesting take on it- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVmal...
