Friday, February 1, 2013

A visit to the Pima County Juvenile Court building

I went to the Pima County Juvenile Court building today (which includes the juvenile jail) to attend a ceremony for Anthony's completion of an academy training course.

It's the third time in my life that I've been inside of a jail facility.  The first time was when I was in elementary school in Nebraska for a tour of a newly built county jail in Kearney.  The second time was to visit a friend who had a four month jail sentence at the Pima County Jail here in Tucson.  Today was the third time.

It's an interesting facility.  It kind of looks like a giant high school inside.  It is divided into areas they call pods, which has what looks like about 15 cells per pod, several showers per pod, a common area in each pod, and an exercise area outside.  They house kids ranging in age from 8-17.  The jail even has it's own library and I got a tour.

The ceremony was nice.  There were several guest speakers who each made brief statements, then the certificates of completion were handed out to the dozen or so Juvenile Detention Officers who completed the training, and then they served cake and punch.

I brought a camera to take photos but I didn't understand the procedures that they allow for visitors to an event like this and ended up not taking it into the building.  Unfortunately, I didn't end up with any pictures.  But, I spent time with Anthony's mom (who rode over with me to the building) and enjoyed a nice ceremony.  The punch they served was really good.  That totally made it worth the trip.

Congratulations to Anthony on your accomplishment.  Feel free to invite me to your work anytime for punch and cake!

The Pima County Juvenile Court Building (a photo I took in November 2012)
They serve delicious cake and punch.