A Visit to a Prison

I found myself in a little while ago in one of the largest American prisons. It was like a stone castle, … . I had been there several times before, on earlier visits to the USA. But this time I had come to see one particular prisoner. He was nineteen and … was awaiting execution for murder. He had just heard the result of a fresh trial. He was … instead. He was white-faced and talkative, a boy who had failed in high school and had all too … that had ended with burning down buildings, two deaths and those two years awaiting death.

This prison is no worse than many others and it is certainly better than some. After you have passed through the complicated series of gates and doors and the electronic instruments have checked that you have no metal on your person – … – you enter within the walls. At once you are astonished … and the curiously easy-going way of life inside. Here are men walking about, often smoking cigars: the football team is being trained on the field; there is a good deal… . And of course things do happen: a sudden shout, …, a mad climb to its top, senseless disobedience for days. But this is somehow a symbol … than that.

This time I was wondering what twenty years (and that would be the minimum) might mean for one boy… .

1. pushed into this organized idleness

2. being on death row

3. to serve life imprisonment

4. after two years by himself in a two-room cell

5.a rush to the water tower

6.that you have no gun in fact

7.at the difference between the strict controls outside

8. after two years by himself in one room

9.of standing around waiting for something to happen

10. for a bigger senselessness

11. its high towers watched by guards with guns

12.easilygot caught up in a night’s adventure

b) Imagine you are a correspondent of the weekly “Juvenile Page”. You are to interview that particular prisoner for writing an article about minor offenders. Ask the prisoner about the crime committed, what made him commit that crime, his life in prison and his feelings.

7. a) Read the letter of an American juvenile offender. Correct the wrong prepositions and change slang words for literary ones.

Lincoln Correctional Institution

933 Juvenile Road-Winchester

Trenton, New Jersey65239

December 13, 2005

Mark Mugger

455 Depot Rd.

Dover, New Jersey32456

Hello Mark,

How are you? I’m fine if it’s possible to use this word in my situation. Yesterday we were taken to visit Gray Bar Hotel. Mr. Just thinks a visit to a pen “where young offenders learn from the inmates some of the realities of prison life is very useful” ( his own words). I don’t know why they are sure that “most juveniles who come into contact with thejuvenile justice system will become adult criminals”. We simply had a bet and I was to do it, it was a point of honor. Ifit hadn’t been that owner of the smoker the men called him the vic, black-and-white would never have caught us red-handedand never have nabbed. And I would have won. After the pitch I was taken to the police department where in my mom and dad’s presence I was accused in, no, charged of, no, indicted with I can’t say for sure, I’m not a pro in this. So, I pleaded with guilty but refused to be a flipper. You know I have never betrayed friends. Yesterday in the joint I felt as a fish whose sentence was at least 10 bullets. It was an unpleasant experience, I can tell you. Mark, remember me to the chaps and tell them to wind up with those silly bets. They can become real men without challenges and getting a rap sheet as I’ve got now. It’s time to become adults.

Bye, Bob Erry

b) Say what crimes are committed by the sender and his friend (the hint is the boys’ names).

c) Say what made the sender commit a crime and predict his future.

7. One of the best and vivid examples presenting juvenile delinquency in all its ugliness is the satiric, futuristic novel “A Clockwork Orange” (1962) by the British writer Anthony Burgess. The story is narrated by the main hero Alex, a teen-aged boy and a gang leader who every night together with his two droogs commit stylized but meaningless acts of terrorism including rape, robbery, and mugging.In 1971 the novel was filmed by the producer-director-screenwriter Stanley Kubrick whose picture was characterized asterrifying, gaudy, randomly ultra-violent, over-indulgent, graphically-stylized. a) Read the novel or see the film.

b) Characterize the dual personality of Alex and changes that he undergoes in the process of growing up. Express your attitude to the measures of fighting with juvenile delinquency taken by the authorities in the novel.

c) Say what other books or films dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency you know. Express your attitude whether such books/films are necessary as they are full of violence.

7. Role-play the International Conference “Stop Juvenile Delinquency! Save Your Child” where its participants discuss the problem of juvenile delinquency in different countries, share their experience and suggest methods of preventing and fighting with juvenile delinquency. Work out and print the program of the conference. The plan of the conference and the list of participants is given below.

The Conference Plan

1. The high rate of juvenile delinquency in modern world.

2. Juvenile delinquents as the doers of violent crimes.

3. Modern teen: What they need.

4. Causes of juvenile delinquency.

5. Measures taken on delinquents and possible punishment

6. Ways of solving the problem of juvenile delinquency

The List of the Participants

1.Mrs. McKinley, a social worker of 40 from Scotland who believes she knows everything about teens.

2.Ms. Baily, a social worker of 25 from England who comes from a large family of 7 kids and adores children.

3.Mr.Bailiff, a probation officer from Wales who hates young offenders because once he was robbed by a mob of young muggers in the street on his way home.

4.Mrs. Pipe, a British criminologist of 50 who has defended a Doctoral thesis in Law “International Experience of Implementing Juvenile Justice System”.

5.Mr. Jefferson, an experienced judge from the Crown Court who’s heard juvenile cases for more than 25 years.

6.Miss Just, a policewoman from Northern Island who is a great curfew supporter.

7.Mr. Denton, a sherifffrom Scotlandwho thinks custody is the best way for a young offender to realized what he/she has done.

8.Ms. Carlton, a mother of three kids, whose elder daughter plays truant, uses marihuana with her friends and steals money from her mom’s purse.

9.Ms. Crafting, a social worker from the USA who thinks death penalty must be imposed in all states as the fear of capital sentence can keep juveniles from violent crimes.

10. Jenny Donald, a senior student of Law School and a law-abiding person whose younger 15-year-old sister is prone to truancy and disrupting classes.

11.Jack Ferriss, a former juvenile delinquent who committed mugging and assault, spent three years in a young offender institution and then was released on parole after getting remission for his good behaviour. He is now a volunteer of the youth organization “Youth against crimes”.

12. Miss Helen Wood, a psychologist providing school counselling and sessions, works with difficult children and those released on probation and being in juvenile aftercare.

13.Mr. Severe, a father of two sons who demands the introduction of more severe punishment for those young offenders whose actions lead to the death or disability of their victims. His elder son died in the hospital after being savagely beaten by drunken schoolboys.

14.Mr.Petrov, who is in chargeof a juvenile colony for girls, a former head of the police department dealing with difficult children and juvenile delinquents.

15.Mr.Aliby, an Americansociologist of 45 who has defended a Master’s thesis on “Factors Determining the Teens’ Violence Rate”.

Choose the moderator of the conference from the list of its participants. The time limit on speeches is 3-4 minutes. The other time should be allocated for questions, discussions, and summing up.

7. Do some library research and write an essay of 350-400 words on one of the given topics:

1. Causes of juvenile delinquency.

2. What should be done to prevent juvenile delinquency.

3. How to fight juvenile delinquency.

4. Penal colonies for juveniles: pros and cons.

5. A. Makarenko’s method of turning juvenile delinquents into law-abiding citizens: will it work nowadays?

6. Curfew: can it stop teens from committing crimes.

Unit Three