Our first day at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center was great. I was looking forward to it all day and I was very happy with the experience. When we arrived, the many locked doors and checkpoints were a little jarring. It started to sink in more that the kids we were meeting with really didn’t want to be there and this was highlighted during our mini-orientation. We talked with a worker and he explained that we needed to be careful with the kids because at the end of the day, they allegedly committed a crime to be there, and they might try to take advantage of our age and kindness. The importance of not giving them a pen or pencil was also stressed which made sense, but it set the tone a little darker. We also were informed that we had to split into groups because one of the female juvenile participants had triggers when it came to being with a large group, and about 7 to 8 juvenile boys decided to take part in the program yesterday. This reminded me of how “the body keeps the score”

I ended up talking with the male participants, which I was nervous about at first because I wasn’t sure how well we could relate and whether or not they would take me seriously. I was wrong, and everyone was extremely attentive and nice. We went around the room and introduced ourselves, and we asked the boys about their dreams. Many wanted to stay in school, pursue carpentry, or be musicians. Many of them also mentioned that they hoped they never ended up back at the center, because for many this was not their first time. We eventually moved on to more storytelling, and I was grouped with two boys. I asked them to tell me about a time they were proud. One of the boys explained a football game where he scored 4 touchdowns, but the other boy felt that he didn’t have any proud moments and started to share some more personal feelings and stories. I was thankful that they shared and had a nice time talking to them.

I noticed how young many of the boys were. We were told that the center housed kids from ages 11 to 17. The boys I met with were on the older side of that, closer to 15 or 16. One of the boys was 16 and had two full sleeves of tattoos and neck pieces, which was suprising to me. When talking to the other boy I worked with I noticed that he talked to himself a lot and repeated certain phrases over and over. He was the one who shared some more personal details with me and I once again was reminded of the reading from “The Body Keeps the Score”. The boys were called to take medicine right before we left, and as we said goodbye I asked one of the workers if it was ok to shake the boy’s hands, and I was told that fist bumps were preferred. I gave the boys fist bumps and invited them to meet again if they were still at the center next Tuesday.