For as long as I could remember while working as a Juvenile Detention Officer, Rebecca was the one kid I always dreaded working with. She was the kid that when she was off her meds, she was a little terrorizer! She was always getting into fights and arguments with the other inmates. She was also constantly doing stupid things to the other girls and even staff at times.
One night I was working swing shift and it was the girls shower time. Rebecca had just came out of the shower and another girl had just gone in. Prior to Rebecca coming out of the shower, another girl kept banging on the shower door and yelling at Rebecca "Hurry up and you retard! There are others that need to get in the shower. " I then heard Rebecca yelling back "shut up you stupid bitch!" "You are gonna regret calling me a retard!" Before I could say anything, Rebecca came bailing out of the shower stark naked, opened the door wide and told the other girl to help herself! She was giggling the whole time. She took one look at me and ran to her cell and closed the door. The other inmate had a baffled look on her face and grabbed her clean clothes and towel and proceeded toward the shower. She had just stepped inside the door and before she even got the door closed, I heard he scream..."You nasty little bitch!" "Ann, you gotta see what that little retard did!" I stuck my head in the shower and in the middle of the shower stall was a pile of feces. I immediately called a lockdown and then called maintenance to come clean and sterilize the mess. It would have been useless to try and get Rebecca to clean up the mess as her afternoon dose of pills had kicked in and she was sound asleep and would remain that way until the next morning.
As time went on and I worked more shifts with Rebecca, I began to notice a pattern. She would be hard to wake up of the morning for breakfast and school. On the days she was able to get out of bed and attend school, she would be sent back to her room by her teacher after about an hour. She would be cranky and snapping at both the teacher and the other girls or simply falling asleep when she was suppose to be doing work. Either way, she would spend most of the day sleeping in her room. The nurse would come by her cell 3 times a day and wake her to give her more meds. There seemed to be several hours gap between her noon dosage and her nite time dosage. Therefore, afternoons around dinner and shower time appeared to be Rebecca's most active time of the day. I asked the nurse about this and she advised me that she was simply following Rebecca's Doctors orders. I asked about her doctor and was told that it was a doctor from the free clinic that her last foster parents had taken her too. When I got the chance to glance at Rebecca's med sheet, it consisted of tranquilizers, antidepressants, and other drugs I had never heard of. They had her on at least 6 or 8 different meds. No wonder the poor girl could not function.
I later asked Rebecca how long she had been on drugs. She advised me for as long as she could remember. She said she had been in and out of foster homes all her life and their answer to controlling her was simply to keep her drugged. When I asked her how she ended up in foster care, see just kinda shrugged and stated, "Oh my mother was addicted to meth, so I was told that I was a meth baby and that I was put into foster care for my own good." "I just don't understand how giving me more drugs, raping and beating me is for my own good!" "When I complain about the drugs fogging my head up and making me sleep all the time, they just give me more drugs.." I've tried not taking them, but then I seem to go crazy without them and it get's me in trouble." "Just laying around all time is also making me fat! I try to exercise, but I just get tired. I don't like being like this, but I don't know what else to do!" Later that afternoon, I called Rebecca's probation officer and ask her to come by the unit so I could discuss Rebecca's situation with her.
When Rebecca's probation officer came to the unit, I explained the issue with all the medications and asked if she could get another doctor to re-evaluate her medications. The probation officer advised me that we would have to wait until Rebecca's sentencing which was scheduled to a couple of days. Her charges were pretty serious, therefore she was probably looking at some hard time in a high security female institution. She advised me she would try to get Rebecca into a particular institution which worked with girls addicted to drugs. She also stated that they had a new naturopathic doctor that they were testing out to see how effective it would be with drug addicts. They also had an extreme boot camp to help these girls to get the exercise they needed and a nutritionist to ensure they got the proper nutrition to heal. I asked her if she would relay this information to Rebecca and see if this were a program she would be interested in. She said "Sure!" I opened Rebecca"s Cell door and asked her to come out and speak with Her PO. When she heard about the program, she got all excited.."Oh hell yes, I would gladly do more time if this helps!" This was the last time I saw Rebecca back in Juvy as after her court date, she was immediately sent off to the Rehab Institute, thanks to a caring probation Officer.
6 months later, I was standing outside the Juvenile Court on a break when a beautiful, slender yet muscular young girl walked up to me. "Ann, you don't recognize me do you?" "No," I replied." "It's me, Rebecca!" "OMG Girl! Just look at you..you look amazing!" She then began to tell me her story. When she first got to the institute, they assigned her to the naturopathic doctor which immediately took her off most of the meds and a couple of the meds they had simply gradually reduced the dosage until her body could handle the withdrawels. She put her on a strict diet of fresh veggies, fruits and proteins. She was assigned an exercise coach that had her up at the crack of dawn running laps and then exercising. Rebecca advised me that she had never felt better in her whole life. She also was able to get her GED and was starting college in the Fall. She herself was going to school to become a nutritionist and exercise coach. She gave me a big hug, told me thank you for helping her to get to the institute. She was now 18 and had come to Juvy to get her records sealed.
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We are Family Protection, Keeping Families Safe, Together.
Linda, 
We are Family Protection, Keeping Families Safe, Together.
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It is up to us as a Community to uncover the truth and spread this truth worldwide!
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...steemit posts in support of 
My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer .. Pregnant Teens in Prison .. Janet's Story
Mandatory-dna-testing-for-all-youth-in-the-system
Coming to Terms with Alcohol, Drugs and Sex
https://steemit.com/family/@thethreehugs/coming-to-terms-with-alcohol-drugs-and-sex
My Wish for You! In Support of the "Victims"
My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer...A series of True Stories of Abuse of Children (Introduction)
My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer...A series of True Stories of Abuse of Children - Maria (Part 1)
My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer...A series of True Stories of Abuse of Children - Maria (Part 2)
My life as a Juvenile Detention Officer...A series of True Stories of Abuse of Children - Tanisha - From The Cradle to The Grave
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