Week 1, Blog #2 The links between play, deprivation, and juvenile incarceration

Play has been abandoned by many adults; vulnerable children are being required to become adults faster and faster and the bond that initiates love between the playful gestures of an infant and parent is being lost. Having my field experience take place at Child Protective Services has been formative in my understanding of how tragic and deep abuse and neglect runs through a child that has experienced it.

I see so many children, no matter how terrible the abuse was, long for their parent. Watching the incarcerated youths was heart breaking. One of my cases, a 12 year old girl under CPS custody had to go to court on assault charges against her foster parents. She was diagnosed as bi-polar. On paper, to a judge, she seems like a hardened criminal. In person she is a scared, lonely, 12 year old girl learning her way in a system where no one seems to want her.

I think it’s easy to lose sight of having a “playtime.” Our children need us  to interact with them in a way that allows proper discourse. It’s so easy to get lost in work, school, and various other activities. Even if you are single without children I still believe that adult playtime can be effective in reducing stress and creating an overall sense of well being.

I really value Mr. Brown sharing his perspective. It struck me that being playful as an adult allowed a greater sense of empathy. One of the biggest issues in regards to the 12 year old that I see in my internship is that she was adopted at birth. I know people that were adopted and thrived from that experience. In her case she never experienced the maternal bond with her biological mother nor did the adoptive mother bond with her.  If you’re not able to feel self worth, as some of these children feel, you’re unable to process the importance of human life. Without that correlation there is no definition of right or wrong.  She has never felt wanted a day in her life.

I appreciated seeing the Arizona “schools” and I get a sense that although the environment is that of confinement they are helping these children. They are being punished but the young offenders were able to grasp that they needed to make an individual choice for change in order to establish a positive outcome for the remainder of their lives.

I am aware of a local rehabilitation center, Triple R, which is a facility that is built around a clubhouse model that utilizes group interaction in an environment where the clients run the clubhouse alongside professional staff and through this autonomous environment develop the ability to have healthy interactions with others. I wish that this could be modeled in the juvenile system. A lot of the children are missing a family element. I feel that if the units were set up with a “mother” and “father” to help the children get that time that they missed out on it would have a greater impact. Offering a family like structure and environment could perhaps allow the children to develop in the stages that they did not receive during their upbringings.