Surrendering my badge
Today is my last day at the correctional facility for juveniles where I've been stationed since mid-May. It's been a wildly enlightening and occasionally terrifying ride. But at 6pm, I will officially surrender the two items that have most legitimated my presence in this place: my sercurity badge from county corrections, and my "chits."
You may be asking, "What are chits?" I had no idea there was a word for such a thing prior to my internship in a facility. A "chit" is a small metal tag which one uses, in my present context, to exchange for facility keys and radios (walkie-talkies). Each employee gets two with one's first initial and last name stamped on one side.
One simply cannot fuction without keys in an institution such as this. That may seem like a no-brainer, but until I worked in one, it didn't fully register. The facility I've been interning with is not a total lock-down place, but access to and from units (which are seperate buildings, each housing up to 24 kids) as well as within the administration building is a real challenge without keys. I occasionally felt self-conscious walking around with keys hanging from my belt-loop, jangling as I walked. Seemed a bit "wardenesque," something I am not anxious to be. Over time, though, I adjusted to the trappings of life on the "inside," and it will be a bit weird to be sans chits and badge after today. I'm sure I'll adjust - I prefer life "on the outs."
Comments
Your experiences with the youth are fascinating to me, and scary at the same time. My "little one" is turning 12 this week, and I can't help but compare how different his life is, with the lives of the people you have been involved with. I applaud what you do!
Posted by: Angie | August 21, 2006 08:51 AM