'Jail time' can help teens

Ask most 12-year-olds and they will probably tell you they do not want to go to jail. The sad truth is some of the at-risk, middle-school children who visited the Iberia Parish Jail last week might end up behind bars before they turn 21. Sadder still, some of them admitted they already know or are related to some of the inmates.

A program that exposes at-risk teenagers to the realities of spending time behind bars is worthwhile when at least some teens are motivated to steer clear of committing crimes.

We hope that none of the youths who visited the parish jail finds his or her way back as a resident there. Our community certainly would be the better for it. However, the lessons of decades-old programs such as “Scared Straight” show us that no matter how dramatic the message, some still make wrong decisions.

Baby boomers should remember “Scared Straight.” Actor Peter Falk, of the 1970s television acclaim “Columbo,” narrates a program during which teens already caught doing less serious crimes are taken into a maximum security prison. Inmates serving life sentences there give the juveniles a serious and raw look into what prison life is really like.

In the 1990s, actor Danny Glover narrated a “Scared Straight: 20 Years Later,” an update on what happened to the teens who visited the state prison. Many of them ended up serving prison time and at least one was still incarcerated at the time the show was aired.

Iberia Parish Jail is not in the same level of the New Jersey state prison. Still, giving these youngsters a small taste of what could happen if they make the wrong decisions should impact at least some of them. Those who do not, or will not, learn these lessons are likely to find themselves back in the parish jail, but not as a visitor.

It is a shame that law enforcement has to go to such great lengths to get across to at-risk youth the consequences they could face. However, the program seems to have benefit, and we can hope it is more than to make future residents more familiar with the facilities.

JEFF ZERINGUE

MANAGING EDITOR