Questions related to the subject of incarcerated youth are tough and complex ones. It seems incomprehensible to hear of children committing crimes of drug use, assault or murder. We can’t understand the issue, and most of the time we’d rather not discuss it; but youth crime and incarceration is, no doubt, something that must be confronted. One of the most prominent questions academics and social scientists raise today is: why? What causes a youth to commit his or her first crime? After viewing the films Juvenile Corrections Facilities and Stuart Brown Says Play is More Than Fun, it would seem that the correlation between play, deprivation and kids who have been incarcerated is profound, and needs to be explored a little more.
In his research, Stuart Brown places a great amount of importance on play. He even suggests, specifically from his work with mass murderer Charles Whitman, that play deprivation can lead to a greater vulnerability to commit crime (2008); and it would seem that his hypothesis has some truth to it. In the film Juvenile Corrections Facilities, a boy named Conrad is introduced. Conrad has a pretty lengthy rap sheet and has been barred from attending every public school in the state of Arizona (2005). When asked “why?”, Conrad responded:
“I got hooked on drugs. Doing drugs with my mom… I grew up being abused, physically and emotionally and mentally by my mom” (Juvenile Corrections Facilities, 2005).
Because Conrad grew up in such a tumultuous environment, where he was exposed to a great deal of abuse, and where he his life consisted mostly of drug use, he was unable to acquire the problem solving, social skills that are typical and necessary to a child’s development, which brings me to my next point: that aspect of play which includes curiosity and exploration.
“Now, one of the things about play is that it is born by curiosity and exploration. But it has to be safe exploration” (Brown, 2008).
When Stuart Brown mentions this, he seems to give ‘play’ a background, or a necessary setting in which it can occur. His specific remark about the little boy who is anatomically curious reminded me of a segment of the juvenile incarceration film where we are introduced to the girl’s juvenile corrections facility. For these girls, where the majority of them have been sexually abused, home life is anything but safe. Particularly, it seems to be unsafe in the sense that many of these girls have sustained sexual abuse—their emotional health is compromised, not only because they seem to grapple with ideas of unhealthy intimate relations, like Jerilyn, a perpetrator of child molestation and a victim of it herself, but also of a more generally wholesome enthusiasm to explore, to play. Jerilyn mentions: “I don’t want to grow up. I don’t want to become an adult. I want to stay home. I kind of missed out on three years of my teenage life, being locked up. And that sucks” (Juvenile Corrections Facilities, 2005).
In further investigation of play, Brown interestingly mentions a type of play he calls ‘rough and tumble’ play. Brown expresses: “Rough and tumble play is a great learning medium for all of us. Pre-school kids, for example, should be allowed to dive, hit, whistle, scream, be chaotic; and develop, through that, a lot of emotional regulation…” (2008). Once again, we remember Conrad, who struggles with being hyperactive and needs medication to function healthily and normally. Part of the problem may be that Conrad was exposed to drugs at such an early age, but one might suspect that another cause of Conrad’s inability to function without medicinal treatment may have to do with the notion that he was unable to develop, as a child, those very essential regulatory behaviors that come about through play, or more specifically, through rough and tumble play.
In sum, the points Brown makes are good ones, and they illustrate a strong correlation between play, play deprivation and juvenile incarceration. In many of the cases mentioned, instances of juvenile incarceration arise from bad family life, which recognizably seemed to lead to play deprivation. So, with all this research evidence on play and play deprivation, there seems to be a little bit of disconnect between how juvenile incarceration facilities operate and how they should operate. In our peering into juvenile facilities, incarceration seems to be characterized mostly by isolation, and only some interaction; and even though we should harbor a good amount of healthy skepticism, especially since some of these youth are prone to violent crime—taking into account play is something that should be approached apprehensively, but not ignored.
Juvenile Correction Facilities. Films Media Group, 0. Films On Demand. Web. 31 January 2011. <http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=11717&xtid=>.
Schierlitz, T. (Photographer). (2008). Taking Play Seriously [Photograph], Accessed on January 31, 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/magazine/17play.html?_r=1>
TED Talks."Stuart Brown says play is more than fun." May 2008. Online Video Clip. Accessed on January 31, 2011. <http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html>
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