I Don't With Nobody to Have a Life like Mine: Initial Thoughts

David Churra writes "Over the years more than one student has described to me what it felt like to hold a friend or older brother as he slowly bled to death from a gunshot or knife wound, and to feel the warm blood seep down through his jeans into his own skin" (21). If even just one student described this to him, that is an issue. Nobody should have to do that, nobody should have a life like that. The first two chapters of I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life like Mine, gave an introduction to the stories of children in adult lockups. The stories are told from the view point of David Chura, the author of the book who spent forty years working with teenagers. Many of those years were spent teaching young adults in adult lockups. Chura listened to the stories of his students lives. In the first two chapters it explained how the prison was run and the interactions between the corrections officers, teachers, nurses, prisoners, etc. After Chura describes some of the stories his students told him and how that has effected them to be where they are today, and where they will be in the future.
From the beginning the warden, Warden Clooney referred to the prisoners as "human garbage." Warden Clooney made it very clear that the civilian people, the people who assisted the prisoners such as nurses and teachers, were a waste of time and that they got in his way. While Warden Clooney is speaking to the civilians at orientation he says "In all the years I been in the Department of Corrections, I've never seen anybody 'corrected,' not a goddamn one." (4) Whether it was being a corrections officer for so long, putting his life in danger, or the tiredness of his age Warden Clooney had no hope in anyone. He has no respect for the lives on the prisoners. This seemed to bother Chura. Chura was in the prison working with adolescents in order to help them as much as possible. He believe in them and the importance of education. While Clooney gave up Chura still believed in the kids. Chura could see that almost everyone else in these kid's lives had given up on them, and now so have the corrections officers, they viewed them as their life being over there was no second chance, no hope. Mr. Chura gave them that hope and that second chance to go to school. He was interested in making these adolescents a valuable part of society, where people like Warden Clooney did not care because he thought that even if they do get out of prison it does not matter because they will be back. And many times they did come back, but maybe all they needed was for someone to believe in them that they could succeed. Almost every single one of these students were set up for failure, whether it was an abusive mother, no family at all, or drug exposure from the day they were born, they did not have good conditions growing up. So if one is almost set up to fail, with no support how do they manage to succeed?