Young offenders discover the power of poetry and Art

They sought release from rules — and now face only rules.

They sought individuality in dress — and now all wear the same orange jumpsuits and sandals with socks.

They sought liberty to go where they please, when they please — and now live under schedules and sleep in a cell, with a small sink and toilet and concrete bunks with mattresses.

A young offender's stay at Snohomish County's Denney Juvenile Justice Center may be for only a few days, but it can be life-changing — often for the good.

Some of that good owes to a group of people who often help in rehabilitation — through the expression of art and writing.

Under lock and key

It's a typical day in north Everett. Buses deliver kids to Hawthorne Elementary School, people stroll at Wiggums Hollow Park, and it's quiet among the subsidized housing projects and senior housing.

Higher up the hill at 10th Avenue stands the Denney Juvenile Justice Center, an imposing building with courtrooms, classrooms and administrative offices. Behind the slotted windows it also includes a detention center for young offenders; it's a lock-and-key facility with walk-through metal detectors and youths doing time.

Yet there is incredible art here, too — created by those same youths. Drawings. Paintings. Collage. Glass art. Linoleum block prints. Poems — some of them ripped out of personal experience and speaking to pain many adults can't comprehend.

"Rape: You turned me into something that I thought I'd never become.

Rape: You stole me and my complete child self.

Rape: I became so sad, so angry, how could you do that to me?

Rape: I cut myself to get rid of the anger that I wish I could take out on you.

Rape: I'm sorry that you're in prison, but what did you expect?"

Molly Patterson, now 19 and living in Mill Creek, wrote that and more in her 33-line poem "Rape," "about a man who raped me when I was 13, who finally went to prison for a couple years," said Patterson. She also wrote one called "My Outer Shell."

"That was how I portrayed myself to the world and how I feel inside," she said.

Patterson, in drug court "from the time I was 14 until I was almost 18," won a national drug-court poetry competition, and her poems were on exhibit around the country.

"I finally felt like maybe someone would see the recognition of what I had done as a person," she said. For the first time, "I felt someone would be able to hear what was inside me. I was not an OK person at the time. I started experimenting with drugs; I went off the deep end."

As for Denney, "I had to go in there," Patterson said. "My mom couldn't control me anymore. It wasn't about drugs; it was about men. It was the fact I was able to say yes to them instead of having them take it from me."

She had her baby, Malachi, in 2006 and is raising him by herself.

"I was ready to be a mother, and nothing else was going to get in my way," she said. "Now I'm a telemarketer at Legacy Telemarketing, doing fundraising. We're doing the state of California right now, a fund for women's breast cancer and pap-smear screening."

For some, "the best escape"

As for the center's visual-art and writing programs, "That's the best escape that some people have," Patterson said. "That's where they can express themselves finally and freely. Some kids don't have that choice to go home. Some people feel like they're so alone. They need to do what they need to do to feel OK."

The Arts Council of Snohomish County has been funding the Denney Juvenile Justice Center Youth at Risk art program through grants since 1993. With blunted scissors, primary colors and pencils, inmates take art classes each week.

In a building that was largely devoid of public art, their art stands as bright beacons in the halls, offices and lobbies. But it does something more: It offers mastery, discipline, structure, healthy adult-to-youth bonding — and a way into young people who have been locked in unexpressed pain, pain that led to offenses.

The Blanche Miller Trust — named after a probation officer who left part of her estate for programs that serve court-involved youths — also helps hire artists-in-residence to work with youths in some sophisticated mediums, among them glassblowing, printmaking, collage and weaving.

Inmates have made linoleum block prints with Paula Rey, done collage with Susan Russell, fused glass masks with Janet Foley, created cedar weavings, rattles and walking sticks with Judy Zugish.

Sometimes the artists come to Denney; sometimes youths go on field trips.

The youths agree to let their work be shown for up to two years. Often they receive credit for community service.

"The idea of this program is to have artists-to-student mentor relationships," says Henri Wilson, a calligrapher who coordinates the arts programs. "They help kids feel they can do art, make it more accessible and give them the chance to meet people who do art."

Wilson's community outreach efforts have a big impact, said Freda Magee, who works in Denney's volunteer guardian ad litem program. "Lots and lots of people who would never get involved, get involved," she said.

Wilson, with assistant Sharon Dittenberger, also works with students on Thursdays.

Writing with courage

Mondays, volunteer Mindy Hardwick works on creative writing with boys and girls in detention after their school day ends at 2:30 p.m. Hardwick, a children's writer in Lake Stevens, starts by reading poetry from "Call It Courage," a book of 40 poems produced by Denney youths in detention through the Miller Trust.

In the hour she's with them, they'll write three poems. The first is on personal experience, the second is inspired by art in magazines or their own drawings, and the third is light-hearted. The last 10 minutes, they read their work aloud.

"I love when they write because they'll go into their life experiences," Hardwick said. "Their writing has a huge depth."

Most are struggling with addiction or family issues, she said. "If I can have patience through the resistance, those kids have a lot to say. I love seeing them go from resistance and walls and 'I can't do this' to seeing those walls drop, and then they realize they have something to say that other people value."

Students in the art and writing programs have collaborated to create two children's books, "A Possible Day on a Farm" and "A Possible Night of Dreams." They've been given to early-childhood programs, libraries and nonprofit organizations. Wilson worked with students in choosing paint and textures for collage-style illustrations to accompany rhymes in the manner of Eric Carle.

"You never know who the gifted artist is going to be," Wilson said. "It's exciting to offer them an opportunity to explore a medium or process they may not encounter in any other place."

School days in detention

Though in detention, students are out of their cells most of the day, taking part in classes run through the Everett School District.

"These kids, the more they're out of their cells, the better off they are," says Shane Nybo, probation manager of Snohomish County Juvenile Court. "They get up in the morning, they have breakfast, they start their school program."

Lessons in math, English and other subjects resemble those of a regular school — except different ages are put together in the same class. Teachers must tailor schoolwork to different skill levels, and with new kids coming in and out each day, no two days are the same.

"What makes it work is the compassion and the patience of the officers, of the teachers, everybody that works with these kids," said Margie Holloway, juvenile-court programs manager. "They are children. On the outside, they may look like adults, but physiologically they're still children."

In addition to the creative-writing and art classes, the Miller Trust helps fund trips to art studios. Some youths have visited such artists as glassblower Callahan McVay on Whidbey Island, learning some skills in his challenging medium.

"I think when someone digests all that, they say, 'Well, look, they're trying to help us, they're giving us time, and they're showing us that we can create something,' " said Bob Mitchell, McVay's first glassblowing teacher, who developed programs and taught at alternative schools for nearly 20 years.

Miller said he's heard youths say, "Wow, they treated us with respect."

"It's a real powerful tool," he said, "to be able to create."

Finding a better path

Youths at Denney also are being patched together through a variety of rehabilitative programs, from drug court to Aggression Replacement Training.

Snohomish County was one of the first in the state to adopt a new risk-assessment program in the mid-1990s. Interviews with the juveniles help decide what model — probation, detention, community service, targeted intervention — would be best for an individual.

"We're meeting with real successes," said Shane Nybo, probation manager in Juvenile Court. "In the long run, if you put the services upfront, you're going to have a healthier community in the future."

"I remember when I started as a probation counselor 27 years ago," Nybo went on. "We'd go in there, there'd be 30 days detention ... and you didn't change anything in their life. They came out, their family was in the same place, their friends were in the same place, we hadn't looked at any of their thinking errors — 'What got you here and what's going to motivate you to get out of it?' And we've just evolved so much."

Craig Daly, an administrator for the Superior Court juvenile division, said the Legislature took up the issue and has worked with juvenile courts to offer research-based interventions.

"We finally, after 20 years, have a full array of programming in place in Snohomish County that has been worked on at a state level," said Daly. "Everybody got together, and we finally have all the links in place."

Instead of putting the emphasis on punishment, juvenile detention now more often means short stays that connect offenders with drug and alcohol treatment, education programs and other community resources. Those involved in the new approach say it's making a real impact on juvenile crime.

"And lo and behold, everybody is saying referrals are down in Washington state," said Daly. "... Our numbers are showing that our referral rates for violent offense [are] going down."

The Denney programs are gaining national attention, Nybo said. "We're very proud of our facility."

Holloway, the juvenile-court programs manager, said 90 percent of the kids who pass through Denney will have contributing lives as adults. And the accepting teachers and arts volunteers play a big role in the center's successes, she said.

"I cannot speak highly enough about Henri [Wilson] and Mindy Hardwick," Holloway said. "They're wonderful. They're so patient, and they can motivate these kids."

"These individuals accept these kids for who they are," she said. "It gives these kids the confidence and self-esteem they lack, when they get out in the community at large. Most of our kids end up being normal, contributing adults, but they're not ready to get there yet."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com