Since the beginning, Bates tells the reader that she has learned a lot of life lessons from the prisoners, and throughout the book she gives examples of those lessons. In this week’s reading (p 192-209), two of the lessons Bates learned from the prisoners (and the ones that stuck out to me the most) were the need to find balance and how criminals start out at a very young age. I see balance as a term to give myself a break from something that has been stressing me out. As a college student I tend to stress over a lot of things, especially because I work part-time and go to school full-time. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this way and it is important to find balance. Like Bates says “I had to find a healthy way to destress. I took up yoga” (197). Do you ever feel like you need a break from something or someone? What are your methods to cope with stress? Another thing that stuck out to me was, in chapter 56, Bates mentions that criminals start off at a very young age. “But as I listened to the prisoners sharing their life stories, it became apparent that each of these men who had committed murder as a teen had started down that road at a much younger age” (203). Bates decides to prepare a presentation for the elementary school teachers on how to be aware of the behaviors and actions of a kid starting to follow the path of a future criminal. To me this came as a surprise, I would never imagine a criminal to start off at 7-12 years of age. The National Institute of Justice said that, “Juveniles who start offending before age 12 are more likely to continue offending into early adulthood” (nij.gov). For example, Newton started robbing K-marts at age 10 and another prisoner said he started “Calling in false fires, out past curfew, drinking under age” (204). What may seem like small crimes can lead to bigger crimes at a teen year and then to more serious crimes as an adult. I have a cousin who is 8 years old, and to think that he could be starting to follow those footsteps is scary. How do you think this can be prevented? How do you think we can notice when kids are starting to take the wrong path? What should be done to the kids that start to commit minor crimes?
http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/Pages/delinquency-to-adult-offending.aspx