The Bakersfield Experience

Wow what a busy few days!!!!! I came up to Bakersfield, which is 2 hours north of LA on Sunday to meet one of my contacts, George, who works in Juvenile Justice as a Probation Officer. He said he had arranged various meetings for me in some of the organisations that they have here to deal with young people who are coming into prison for the first time as well as those who are involved in gang activity. On Sunday night i met him for the first time and he took me to his house to have dinner with his family which was absolutely lovely, they were so welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a great ice breaker.

Bright and early Monday morning George had arranged for one of his colleagues to pick me up and show me around some of the organisations that they have. We visited about 7 places in the day; it was such an eye opener. The services that are provided are quite varied and many of them are faith based but they all have the same goal: to support young people and to stop them for being caught up in the cycle of crime and gang activity.

I spoke one young man who was attending the Bridges Programme. This is for young men and women who are not able to attend mainstream school due to their behaviour, they support young people, offer counselling, one to one support and small education classes so that they can get the help that they need to get the education that they need to succeed. This young man was an active gang member and had many gang related tattoos on his face and arms which were relating to his gang. He had been a gang member for the past 4 year and now at the age of 17 he was attempting to get help from this service to get out of the gang. He appeared to be making good progress and since he had been attending the programme he has applied to have his tattoos removed so that he can get a job and not been seen as a gang member. According to the staff at the organisation he had been a very active gang member in the past and his father was also heavily involved in the gang so they were very pleased that after spending time in juvenile facilities, seeing his friends get shot and being shot at himself this man had come to the decision to leave his gang and was making active steps to make this happen.

The following day I visited Juvenile Hall, wow what an eye opener that was!!! One of the organisations Crossroads was run very much in a military style. The inmates, who are under 18 have to march and chant various messages and wear a uniform with the name sewn onto it. They look very smart as they walk around the campus, hands behind their back. Their beds and cells are also extremely tidy as they are inspected every day and have to be perfect otherwise there were consequences. I was shocked at the level of discipline in the facilities; I had never seen anything like it! All of the young men that I met were so polite and very well mannered. So interesting! It was sad to see some of the young men were still children at aged 13, they looked so young! At the facilities I visited the young people attended education daily and were allowed to do jobs around the facility such as sweeping the yard and cutting the grass. In one of the facilities they also had a separate area for females that provided them with specific counselling sessions and support for those who have been involved in abuse from a young age.

On the third day I visited Wasco State Prison. WOW!!! The facility is massive! All the inmates walk around in bright orange jump suits and are there for a variety of crimes. They are there mainly for a short term before they are moved onto other establishments after they have been classified as to their level of danger relating to their crime, to serve their sentence. I was surprised to see that when the inmates come into the facility they really do have to do the ‘squat and cough’ to check them for contraband and it is in front of all the other inmates! I also saw the very evident racial segregation on the yard; they really do keep to their own race. The alarm went off while we were there to because there was a medical emergency and all of the inmates had to lie on the ground arms out stretched. Due to lack of space in the facility some of the areas have been made into dorm areas, that is 200 prisoners in one area with the freedom to walk around if they want to even though they are not supposed to and one officer to watch them! I couldn’t believe that! It looked like such a dangerous situation but the officers said that they do not have many problems in those areas. If they do though and a fight breaks out they have a number of officers that can attend and the inmates are then taken to spend time in the segregation area where they stand in mental cages for 4 hours at a time.

My whole experience in Bakersfield has been such an eye opening but fascinating experience! I have very much enjoyed myself here and have seen so much that I haven’t even had chance to document on here such as a mock Call in based on Operation Ceasefire, where they bring in professional and active gang members in the community and offer them alternatives to the gang lifestyle, again another fascinating experience. I was exposed to sooooooo much and I thank the Juvenile Probation Team in Bakersfield for all their help and support. I am now back in LA ready to visit some of the organisations that I have been in contact with here.