Week 8

The past couple weeks I have put in some extra hours. Usually I work all day Tuesday and Wednesday, but recently there have been tours and meetings scheduled for Thursday mornings. This week we went to the Pendleton Department of Corrections where the high-risk juvenile sexual offenders are housed since it is the only juvenile facility licensed to receive high-risk offenders. We learned about all the programs they offer including STEP (Sex offense treatment and education program), GROW (Gang reality in our world), and (I forget the acronym for) a program designed to prepare residents to enter the army. We participated in a guided tour that began in the administrative building. We saw many inmates who looked at us like we were aliens. Some inmates recognized the public defenders we were with, too. We saw inside the rooms, met some of the staff, and got a feel for the programs offered there. When we met with a head administrative lady to initiate the tour, she said something that stuck with me. The approach she takes is, "Being here is punishment enough. The goal is not to focus on the things they've done wrong, but work on developing a lifestyle geared toward dealing with the environment they will eventually enter back into." MSNBC did a documentary on the facility as well. The tour guide told us that the main character they interviewed during the documentary was a star inmate who didn't spend much time in the facility due to good behavior and program completion. The inmate recommitted and entered into an adult prison not long after his release.
The other part of the week consisted of researching a client, meeting him while he was detained, and filing. The boy I met had a history of running away. He was ready to get out detention since he has been there a year now. He wants to be placed in a treatment facility, but it is likely that the judge will see how many times he has runaway from the facilities and decide that a secure location like boy school would be best.

HBSE/micro: What theories of development would be useful for you to know about in your field placement? I like to keep Erikson's theory of development in mind. Industry Versus Inferiority and Learning Identity Versus Identity Diffusion are two commonly witnessed battles in my field. The kids I work with are school-aged from around 5th to 12th grade. These two stages of development are constant considerations at my placement. I also see lots of social workers in my field utilizing the Strengths Perspective. They will begin meetings with what is going well or the overall strengths of the client.

WEEK's hours: 18.2
Hours to date: 137