Today was seriously one of the most amazing, exciting, and educational days of my entire life. A girl named, Riley from my team, and myself got to spend the day with two correctional officers. One of the officers is in the Sex Offender unit, and the other was just a regular CCO (Community Correctional Officer) that works with any type of offender.
I was SO SO excited to be able to see what it would be like to work in the Sex Offender unit, like it's one of the jobs I've considered for myself. So in the beginning of the day we actually had to get up a little earlier to travel to a town called, Tacoma to go to the DOC in Pierce County. It's a little drive, but it was definitely worth it. When we got to the offices we got aquatinted, and assigned to the officers we'd be with for the day. We then got to go to their offices, and get our BULLET PROOF VESTS (yes, you read that right). IT WAS SOOO COOL. I felt like a giddy little child. We also got to look at the GPS systems they put on the higher level sexual offenders, and got to look at what the map looks like from the computer. So basically we watched a little dot (representing one of the offenders), and watched him walk around his house for a few hours-they sped up the time of course. But it was superrrr awesome.
We then left the offices to get out to the offenders that needed to be visited that day. While in the back of the car we got to play with the hand cuffs for awhile, and it was actually a lot of fun haha. I seriously felt like a dork all day, but I really didn't care. We visited at least 5 sexual offenders throughout the day, and a few other offenders that were just regular offenders. It takes a lot of time to drive from place to place though. Before we got to each house the officers filled us in on what the offender did, how long they have been on supervision, and if they have had any violations etc. We also walked around the person's house, and the officers would be looking for any signs of breaking a violation (drug paraphernalia, or something out of the ordinary). The offender also would tell the officers if they were planning on going anywhere, and needed to get permission, and information to the officers in order to be able to go. It was really crazy to hear the stories, then go actually see the person in their homes face-to-face. I can bet you we asked the officers a bazilllion questions throughout the day, but they were really open, and honest about giving us answers. At one residence, which was basically a trailer court with three trailers, the offender actually wasn't home, but we searched around anyway looking for whatever the officers were looking for. There were actually roosters and chickens walking around which was the scariest part of the day. The women CCO actually sprayed pepper spray on a rooster because it scared her, and the spray got into my mouth, and nose. It was SOOO WEIRD. I was actually scared for my life for 5 seconds because I didn't realize she sprayed it. It felt like it wasn't possible for me to breathe air in, and it smelt sooo bad, but it ended up being pretty funny. We also got to take the two officers out to lunch with us, and meet up with another officer and another one of our team members, Debbie, to eat with us.
It's probably best that I don't put all the sexual offenders stories on here, but one thing completely blew my mind throughout the entire day. The offenders looked completely!!!! normal!!!! They were friendly, didn't make me uncomfortable, and didn't scare me whatsoever. One of the guys actually reminded me of the kind of person my dad is. It blows my mind that people who seem like genuinely nice, and good people can be capable of such things. None of the people I met today was like the weird, perverted person that you'd imagine a sex offender would be. It is just so crazy to think that just one mistake can alter a person's life forever, even if they change into a better person. I know a lot of people don't tolerate even thinking about sexual offenders, especially ones that molested children, but I truly believe that people can change, and that we are all human. If people go to treatment, serve their time, and TRULY change I believe that they do deserve to live normal lives without all the rules that a sex offender has, but that is just me. Seeing the offenders also makes you a little eerie of basically everyone you see. The nicest person in the world could actually be holding a huge secret.
When we weren't at a persons' house we were driving around talking, and we also stopped by a few different DOC buildings, and it was really informational. The officers told us about several different offenders, and that some of them you know will end up being on supervision forever because they end up being homeless, and therefore end up committing more crimes which means more violations, and then you have an offender that doesn't ever violate their supervision, and the visits are quick and easy with them. Also, each officer has about 30 offenders on their workload, which sounds pretty overwhelming, but that's just the way it is. We also got to goof around with the officers, and hear some of the bad things that go on in the office, like the little rumors and gossip that can go on about your fellow employees, it was actually pretty humorous. Also, once we got back to the DOC for the day, I had one of the officers pretend to arrest me because I wanted to see what it was like haha AND it was pretty cool :P.....
Tonight we had a pretty amazing D.N.A group (which is our little small group/bible study we do a few times a week). A few of us shared our testimonies, and it was such an amazing reminder to me that Christians don't have it all together. In fact, Christians come to Jesus because they are so broken in their own lives that they have decided they don't want to do it alone anymore. I think that's one thing I've forgotten that has made me fall in my faith. I've forgotten that I don't need to hold it all together. Someone said something tonight that really opened my eyes. They said, "After I decided to put God first over everything else, everything started to fall together." I think it has honestly been a long time since I've actually put God first in my life before my emotions, and the goals that I have for myself. I really think this trip might be a start to getting back into my relationship with God, and actually feeling like I deserve to have a relationship with him.
So tomorrow I'm back in Seattle, and will be assigned to another correctional officer, and I absolutely can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow. I also don't think that I've mentioned that we get HOME COOKED MEALS EVERY NIGHT, it's sooo goooood...Okay, I think that's all I got for now. Once again I am completely exhausted, but it's all worth it. This has been such a growing experience for me already, and it's not even a week into it. I'm incredibly blessed with the life I have been given.
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