Kids Get ‘Just Say No’ Lesson At Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center

They earn from 50 cents to $1 an hour. Their birthdays pass unnoticed. Most haven’t seen their children or families for several months.

It’s considered a privilege to wear their own clothing, instead of a prison smock and loose-fitting pants.

Many inmates are in the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center because they started smoking, drinking and doing drugs before they were teenagers.

This was the message given to fifth- and sixth-graders from Greenacres Elementary School, who spent Tuesday morning touring the prison and hearing inmates tell their stories. It was part of Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug campaign.

Greenacres PTA committee chairwoman Diane Hulet organized the tour to show students firsthand the consequences of drug use. “They hear, ‘Just say no, just say no,’ but they don’t hear why they should just say no,” Hulet said. “They need to see the consequences.”

At the beginning of the hourlong tour, some students commented on how nice the prison seemed - spotlessly clean, quiet and with friendly guards.

But their attitudes changed as the tour continued.

They were shown a restricted cell for inmates who cause problems. There was no television, no radio and no talking was allowed.

“They can’t break that and use the glass to cut themselves or anyone else,” a guard told the students.

“I think I’d go crazy,” sixth-grader Alison Meagher said. “They don’t get any freedoms. They don’t even get to see their families.”

Aside from the sparse surroundings, students were told that inmates sometimes pick on and fight with each other.

But talks by inmates drove the point home. The inmates’ names aren’t being used at the request of the prison.

One woman started crying when she saw the students because she has a child their age, whom she hasn’t seen in months. She’s serving time on a drug conviction.

She’s due to have another baby in three weeks but won’t be able to spend time with him until she is released.

She said her drug use started with cigarette smoking and “drinking a little beer.” Then she tried marijuana, and eventually harder drugs.

The other woman, who is in prison for embezzling, echoed that.

“The way people treat each other in here isn’t good,” she said. “No one wants anyone to be happy, so they try to bring each other down.”

Sixth-grader Gabe Romero thought the prison looked nice when he first entered.

“At first it didn’t seem like it would be that bad.” he said. “I thought it would be more messy. But after hearing what it’s like to live here, I wouldn’t want to stay.”