Day campers learning about law enforcement take trip to jail.

By Tonya Maxwell

June 26, 2000 Web posted at: 2:52 PM EDT (1852 GMT)

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (Indianapolis Star) -- Crusts of moldy bread. Stale water. An occasional rotten vegetable or two.

In the minds of some area fifth-graders, those are the features of the Marion County Jail menu.

"My mom said that the food they give you here tastes like dog food, but I don't think it's that bad now," said 11-year old Chris Allen as he stood in a jail hallway bombarding deputies with questions about the diets of prisoners.

He didn't get the opportunity to actually experience a lunch at the jail.

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Still, learning that meals in the jail aren't so different from his own school lunches, he decided he could stomach the food.

The day the youngsters visited, prisoners chowed on hamburgers, mashed potatoes, bread, mixed greens and cookies. That could have been a typical tray at Southport Elementary, where Chris attends school.

And knowing that prisoners can buy cookies and candy in the commissary sweetened the deal for him. Not that he has plans to make a jail commissary part of his life, of course.

He and 53 other kids from Perry Township toured the county jail last week as part of a summer day camp designed to teach children about law enforcement through interaction with police officers.

Each summer, the Marion County Sheriff's Department holds six one-week camps for fifth-graders who attend schools in the areas patrolled by sheriff's deputies.

During each camp, the kids practice fire and bike safety and visit the police academy to learn about a day in the life of a cadet.

At the jail, always a favorite camp trip, kids peered through sand-colored bars to examine 6-by-9-foot cells that house women prisoners. The women were working in another area of the jail, leaving the children free to study from a short distance away the single bunk, toilet and personal items in each cell.

Looking through one-way glass, 10-year-old Frankie Smalls watched as some prisoners talked and played cards in a cellblock housing 40 men. The noisy bangs of cell doors slamming shut along with the sight of cramped sleeping quarters were enough to make Frankie declare he didn't want to come back, even for a field trip.

"I feel sorry for them because they didn't do the right thing and follow the law like they should have," he said of the men milling about in bright-orange uniforms.

Frankie said he continues to have high regard for law enforcement officers. Last year, he said, an officer drove him home when he became lost after leaving a neighborhood grocery store.

But it's hard for most kids to see beyond the badge, brown shirt and slacks of a sheriff's deputy, said Deputy Kevin Kendall, one of 62 sheriff's officers who volunteer for the program.

"When they see the uniform, they get a little intimidated. But when they get to know us like this first," said the out-of-uniform Kendall, gesturing to his T-shirt and jeans, "they get to know us as buddies. On the last day, we come in our uniforms, and the kids think that's really great."

Developing positive relationships with law enforcement officers early on can prevent kids as they grow older from violating the law, said Sheriff Jack Cottey.

Cottey created the summer camp when he first was elected to his office six years ago. Since then, participants affectionately have become known as "Cottey's kids."

Schools generally pick the students who attend the program and usually choose both children who aren't reaching their full potential and those who have overachieved.

That way, Cottey said, the camp can nudge some kids away from becoming law-breakers and reward others who have excelled.

Funded by private donations from area businesses and organizations, the camp is free for each of the 300 children who participate each summer.

In addition to watching and learning about law enforcement activities, participants also visit the Indianapolis Zoo and attend a graduation ceremony, during which they receive a certificate and pictures of themselves with the sheriff.

At graduation, kids also show off their newly learned drill skills to their parents.

But getting the 10-year-old set to curl hands into neat little fists at the order of "Attention!" isn't the easiest feat. At every opportunity, deputies worked patiently with the day campers last week, teaching them to fall into neat squads and squared-away platoons.

Often they met with success, but while leaving the jail, the kids couldn't help but rush into the bright sunlight, chattering and skipping, despite calls by deputies to remain orderly.

Maintaining control of prisoners and elementary school students each poses its own challenges, said a joking Sandy Campbell, the corrections officer who led the jail tour.

So which group is more difficult to keep in line?

"It's a tossup," she said with a smile.

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