'SERVING TIME 101' GETS ENDORSEMENT FROM A 'GRADUATE'

Last month I wrote a column suggesting that no Vanderburgh County
middle school student be allowed to graduate without taking a special
one-day course I call Serving Time 101.

Now that we have a new lockup, I think a cell in the county's old
jail should be reserved for adolescents.

Each day, a handful of youngsters from every school in the county
would be bused to the decrepit facility where they would be booked,
fingerprinted, issued prison jumpsuits and tossed into the slammer.

After an hour of staring at the walls and breathing air that smells
like a wet sock, they would be released in time for fourth period.

I believe the overwhelming majority would realize jail is a
thoroughly wretched place and become determined to live their lives
in such a way that they will not be in stir for so much as three seconds.

The column prompted a half-dozen or so responses, all in agreement
with Serving Time 101.

I heard from Star Powers, who has spent almost one-third of her 35
years behind bars.

Her offenses range from auto theft to dealing cocaine.

At one time, she had a heroin habit that cost $1,000 a day. When the
Evansville woman ran out of money, she resorted to prostitution in
the cheap motels on Fares Avenue.

"It started when I was 13. I was delinquent and out of control.
Drinking, drugging and fighting with my dad. I couldn't stand being
told what to do."

She dropped out of school at 16. Two years later, she was pregnant
with her first of three children.

"It wasn't unusual for me to sell $10,000 worth of dope in a week.
The drugs took hold of my life and my kids suffered the consequences.
Mom ended up taking them."

Star's first stint in prison failed to get her attention.

"When I got back home, I went right back into the drugs - selling and
using. I also wrote some bad checks. Mom kicked me out of the house."

She was arrested and sentenced to 21 years.

"The legal system was tired of fooling around with me."

But this time she entered a recovery program while in prison. Instead
of trying to figure out how to smuggle dope into her cell, she
thought long and hard about her wasted life.

Thanks to a modification in her sentence, Star Powers was released in
2003. She worked two jobs - waiting tables and clerking at a convenience store.

"I'm totally drug-free and celebrating my second year of having my
kids back. When you do things right, good things come to you."

She is finishing a course in human services at Ivy Tech. She plans to
enroll at USI and pursue a degree in social work.

"I want to go into substance abuse treatment for teenagers."

It's an exhausting schedule. When she isn't working or going to
school or being with her children, she attends AA meetings.

Star Powers believes middle school is the perfect age for youngsters
to spend an hour in the old county jail.

"I was in there coming off heroin. Shaking and throwing up for an
entire week. They put me in a holding cell so I could get sick in
private. I was hallucinating so bad I thought the bars were melting.

"Kids could learn a lesson from me and people like me who screwed up.
Jail isn't a pleasant place. The sooner you learn that, the better
off you'll be."