It was a cold September day
It was the second Wednesday of September in 1993. I don't remember the exact date but I do remember it was the second Wednesday. I had been to court a few days before and had been sentenced to the Indiana Girls School. Prison for minors as we were frequently told. We were given Department of Correction numbers that would stay dead if we remained out of trouble once released. But if we got into trouble as adults it would reactivate the number. Even after all these years and even though I was sent there for running away which is not a crime if you are an adult I still remember my DOC number 933965. My number is dead and I plan on it never being reactivated.
The transport van picked me and another girl up
The other girl who just so happened to be my cousin was going for just 2 months. But I was sentence to a program with an no set sentence. I could be there 3 months or till I was 21. It was kind of scary arriving there. When we first arrived we were taken through a gate into an intake area were other girls from around the state was arriving. Most of these girls were harden criminals, not runaways like my cousin and I.
When you get there you go through intake
The bright side of juvie prison is you got to wear your own clothes after everything is search through, anything deemed not allowed that you bring is packed away in the storage cottage till you are released. But when you first arrive you are taken to the medical building where you are stripped searched and forced to submit to a gynecological examination and a full medical exam. I am allergic to PPD shots, that is a TB shot for those who don't know. I don't have TB but I can't get those shots so I have to have x-rays. That is important later in the story. Everyone also is washed in lice shampoo from head to toe.
Once the medical exams were done we were all taken to cottage 2
Cottage 2 was the intake cottage, were everyone went for 2 weeks before being assigned to one of 4 cottages. Cottage 3 was for those who were deemed not capable of being around others or those there for a very short stay, so my cousin was going to be assigned cottage 3 since she was going home in 8 weeks. The rest of us went through a battery of tests that was suppose to determined where we would fit in best at.
After a week a group from one of the cottages came to give us an orientation on how things worked.
Each cottage had groups each group was only allowed to talk to those in their group, you were not allow to talk to people outside your group unless it was in a class at school or in a group setting like AA or NA or some other group therapy thing. Each group was responsible for holding other members accountable for their actions or in actions. If someone was off task we would be required to tell them they were off tasked by saying something like this if they were suppose to be doing their school work" You should be doing your homework, and not slacking off" it could get really annoying.
We were told that the following Wednesday we would all be assigned a cottage and group. When that following Wednesday arrived I found out I was going to group 10 in Cottage 4. (I don't know why it was group 10 there wasn't 10 groups in the cottage) It was an adjustment not being able to talk to people living in the same cottage as we lived in. It isn't normal. I got so tired of hearing "Michelle, you shouldn't be talking outside your group" Seriously I heard that all the time once I was moved to the cottage but for I could be moved I needed that TB test and since I can't have PPD shot because I am allergic to them they had to take me off campus for chest x-rays
Another girl had to go to the hospital too
The staff member that took us didn't hand cuff us, and didn't bring any with her. It isn't standard to do that and I was really surprised at the time because I had a rep for being a runner. Then on the way the station wagon we were being transported in broke down, and on top of it the walkie talkie she had to keep in touch with the prison died. Talk about a bad day for that prison guard. She looked at us and said please don't run off, I can't take having that bad of a day. Me and the other girl talked it over while the guard was trying to flag down help to call the prison to get a replacement transport and we decided that it would be stupid to run, neither of us knew anyone or how to get around, and it would just give us an escape charge, and it wasn't worth it. We finally made it to the hospital and had our tests and went back to campus.
A couple of days later we moved into our new cottages
It was an adjustment, but I was happy to see someone I knew in my group. I was assigned her as a roommate till our therapist found out we knew it each other from home, then she moved around the roommate situation. But it helped knowing someone from home in my group adjust and settle in. Every day 3 times a day at least sometimes more. We had to line up against the wall for count. They would start at one end and the girl would come off the wall and yell out their DOC number.
Each group rotated jobs on campus
We all had jobs we had to do each day. Each group rotated in and out of jobs every 2 weeks. Kitchen duty was the worse, as you had to get up even earlier to prepare breakfast. But it also had it's perks like extra food. After breakfast and clean up was done, we went to school till lunch time then back to school till about 3 pm. Then more chores. We had these cubby like areas for each group that was like a living room for when we had down time. But there was group therapy too. With and without our therapist. When someone was risking getting in trouble we would hold a group to try to stop the behavior. If we couldn't settle it, we would call "Desk" which would get staff involved and we would tell them what was going on. But for the most part, it was students telling other students what to do, and staff making sure no one got killed.
In the next part of my story I will go into detail more about my experiences in Indiana Girl School. I also recently found a letter that made its way back to me when my grandmother died that I wrote to her while I was in IGS. It was kind of weird when I came across it, because I had just finished my last piece when I found the letter. I will try to get things set up so I can scan it and show you what a scared 16 year old was thinking. It will also go well with the next piece as I share my experience. It will put the letter in context.
