45 pages • 1 hour read
True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “A Trip to the Museum”
Chapter 4 introduces Sister Janet, one of the Catholic volunteers at Central Juvenile Hall. Sister Jean informs Mark of the importance of this program: that these students primarily need someone to "listen" (24). Sister Jean has an idealistic, redemptive view of the youths' psychology, of which the author is skeptical: Mark understands that he cannot be what many of these prisoners lack, and is equally leery of the "cliché problem"—a white person trying to solve intractable social problems with art. Despite this, Salzman believes that his help is better than doing nothing. Nevertheless, he cannot help but notice the students put much more effort and sincerity into their writing than both his college-age and adult students. Before meeting his students, Mark meets Mr. Stone, an administrator in the facility. Stone warns Mark "there's a tendency to see what you want to see, to see what makes you feel good. You see the kids at their best, and then think that's reality" (28). While on his way home, Mark reads an essay written by Kevin, his student. Kevin describes a trip to the museum, after which an adult buys him ice cream. Kevin, whose parents are deceased, describes it as the only time an adult has cared for him since his parents died. Mark is struck by this, as it puts the value of his role as a teacher in a new light. Sister Janet forcefully brings home the point to Mark: "Can you imagine being seventeen years old and feeling this lonely and confused?" (42).
Chapter 5 Summary: “Collision”
With Duane assisting, the program continues, with three students in focus: Kevin Jackson, Jimmy Wu, and Francisco Javier. These students are also HROs, or "high-risk offenders"—all being tried as adults. As such, the correction officers and staff are skeptical that the writing program will have any real benefits. In the sessions, however, the students make strides. Francisco and Jimmy expand their writing into personal territory, describing the frustrations of their lives in prison, and the uncertainty of their futures. One of Francisco's remarks gives Mark pause: "Sometimes I don't even mind bein' in jail, I can forget I'm here. But when I think about life on the outs, all that shit from the past—that's when it hurts" (49). Jimmy echoes Francisco's feelings, but in a more dismal tone: "I mean, what good does it do to hope for anything? It doesn't matter what we do anymore. Nobody cares about a bunch of criminals. When I was on the outs, I never thought once about people in jail, so why should I expect anybody to think about me?" (52). This feeling, Francisco elaborates, affects how inmates must behave in facilities like Central Juvenile Hall: "you gotta put this stone-cold mask on even then. That's what this place is all about. Puttin' on masks" (50). These "masks," Mark learns, may seem like just posturing to those on the outside, but for these boys, they are a matter of survival.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Here I Am”
Chapter 6 begins on an unusually warm morning at Central Juvenile Hall. The boys have just gone through a set of exercises. Francisco explains the inmates participate as a condition to go outside, and, in preparation for an athletic competition later in the year. In class, another student arrives; his name is Patrick Chumnikai. For a while, the students struggle to come up with any productive ideas, their concentration affected by the heat. Prompted by Mark, Patrick writes on the theme of "distance."He writes about his father, and the gulf between them. Francisco writes about a "message in a bottle" (64), in which he describes his personal connection between memory and regret: "I feel depressed sometimes about not being able to remember the most important people in my life, and I try not to let it get me down, but I think it would get anybody down. I guess I just did too much forgetting. Now I regret it" (65). Jimmy's essay is the most poignant; in it, Jimmy describes his brother's muscular dystrophy, his parents' financial trouble, and his own despair:"Now here I am, sitting behind walls./With nothing to do but think" (68).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In these chapters, Salzman establishes more familiarity with the juvenile hall, as well as his students. This familiarity creates both positive and negative effects for both Mark and his students alike. While the program allows these young inmates to express themselves more fully, the program's limitations become more clear: no matter how well any of the inmates learn to express themselves, there is little Mark can do to affect either the outcomes of their court cases and the other circumstances that continue to affect their lives. For many of the inmates, the focus is their families: Jimmy and Kevin both express deep regret as to the pain their offenses and incarceration have brought to their families, but also their present uncertainty: Jimmy's mother is in serious financial trouble, and his brother has a congenital disease. Their uncertainty is a source of anxiety for Jimmy, which emerges in his writing. However, towards the end of Chapter 6, more immediate issues arise: the author's students have been getting extra time in the writing program, which detracts from other inmates' privileges; this can have possibly dangerous and unintended consequences. Overall, these chapters offer a mixed view of the program's ultimate worth, even at this early stage.
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