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Didn't see much of a reaction from the boys. The dads, myself included, were very interested in how the whole system worked. I was talking at length with the guy who ran the place.
My son was acting out A LOT for the rest of the day when we got home, so I wonder if it had scared him and he was looking for parental attention. There was one point that we were standing in the central area of a cell block, and inmates in their cells were looking quietly at us out the windows in their doors. I ignored them and forgot they were there, but I think the boys kept looking at them looking at us.
The thing that impressed me the most about the jail was how quiet and clean the place was, and how in control the guards were. Not in a tough guy bravado sort of way, but just simple matter of fact control. I felt perfectly safe. It's a sleek new modern place (almost 20 years old though.) The booking area was more like a doctor's waiting room or airport lounge than what I would think of as a jail. There were little rooms off to the sides where they could chain up an unruly person, but the rest of the booking area just looked like the most boring waiting room you have ever seen.
They said that the new jail has much better behaved inmates than the old jail did because the new jail feels more human. No bars anywhere. Heavy steel doors with bullet proof glass, but no bars.
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