Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth

Two male students make an escape attempt but are quickly subdued and given a minor punishment. The administrators conclude that penalties need to be stiffer, because the students are faking escape attempts for the thrill of it. The Giddings faculty faces an ongoing battle over discipline versus therapy because “there is always tension between staff members who believe that security is paramount, and youth should be treated as prisoners, and staff who believe that incarceration is an opportunity to deliver treatment (216).

Discipline is necessary because gang activity on campus is a real concern. Some students maintain their gang affiliations and attack other gang members to achieve status or recognition within their peer group. One of the administrators points out that gang activity offers the students a surrogate family: “Gangs are all the good things, going in all the wrong directions. Before a youth will leave a gang, she has to believe that she can achieve ‘the good things’—acceptance, respect, and love—outside her set” (219). The school’s goal is to get these youths to relinquish their gang associations once they are free.

To help the students internalize a belief that they are worthy of these “good things” without gangs, the therapists use role-playing as a powerful tool for self-realization.