A program in Shiawassee county aims to show adolescents the struggles of being sentenced to jail.
The program, called Inside View, is meant to inspire young teens to make good decisions and avoid a jail sentence, so they don’t have to experience incarceration.
Correction officers and inmates speak to the youth, telling them the hardships of living in a jail cell.
Lieutenant Tammy Wilson is the Jail Administrator for the Shiawassee County Jail.
“We kind of key in around eleven to 15 year olds, most generally the ones that really haven’t been in a lot of trouble, so that way it kind of gives them a little bit of a view of what it actually is like to come to jail; the privileges they have that is different from the outside.”
Wilson said they youth are shown jail cells, where toilets and beds are shared among inmates, as well as the recreation room and where new inmates are processed.
She said they plan to run the program once a month.