The ex-prison officer mother of a tearaway teenager begged producers to lock up her son in one of America's toughest jails for a radic...
The ex-prison officer mother of a tearaway teenager begged producers to lock up her son in one of America's toughest jails for a radical TV experiment.
Hugh Connell, from the small town of Market Harborough in Leicestershire, was one of eight youths that spent a week inside Florida's Brevard County Jail for a Channel 4 documentary.
His mother Helen says she rang the makers of Banged Up: Teens Behind Bars in tears as she pleaded with them to allow her son to take part telling them: 'I pay you to take him.'
The youngster, 17, has been excluded from school, was arrested when he was 16 for carrying a machete, used to get into fights, and left education without a single GCSE to his name.
She told the documentary that her son 'doesn't like being told what to do', but lives a 'charmed life' going skiing every year, and also owns a pony and a motorbike, said she was desperate for him to take part.
Hugh Connell, now 17, broke down within hours of arriving at Florida's Brevard County Jail
Ms Connell, a prison officer in her twenties, who is divorced from Hugh's father, said the 17-year-old 'had everything, including two parents who adore him' but still found himself in trouble with the law.
And life on the inside proved tough for Hugh, who broke down in tears after just the first day of the week long experiment.
Ms Connell, 52, told the Daily Telegraph that when she rang producers: 'I said, ‘I’ll pay you to take him.
'I didn’t know what else to do.'
Hugh (pictured) is one of eight troublesome teenagers locked up at the prison, which houses murderers and rapists for Channel 4 documentary Banged Up: Teens Behind Bars
Hugh (pictured) who was excluded from school three times is later made fun of by the other youths on the programme for crying
And she believes the time inside has had a positive effect, and revealed he had written a letter from the jail where he said how he never wanted to go to prison again.
She told the paper: 'I feel as if now I can say to him ‘that’s enough’, ‘stop’, ‘come home’, or ‘think about what your doing.'
Hugh's mother Helen (pictured) rang the programme makers in tears as she pleaded with them to allow her son to take part telling them: 'I pay you to take him'
She said of the letter: 'It’s heart-wrenching.
'It's about how sorry he is, how he’ll try harder and how much he missed me. He never, ever wanted to go in a prison again.'
Hugh is one of six teenage boys and two teenage girls as they are forced to walk in shackles and meet other inmates in the jail, which surrounded by wire fences and alligator swampland.
The youths spend seven days locked inside, living next to the other 1,600 inmates guilty of a catalogue of serious crimes.
They are kept under the watchful eye of Sheriff Wayne Ivey, a man with the motto 'we need to get to these kids before they get to us'.
Hugh told the paper after the experiment: 'It felt like I was back at school but worse, [with] people barking at me, telling me what to do.
'When I panic I get upset, and when I get upset, I get angry, and then I can't control what I'm doing.'
Hugh, 17, who was excluded from school three times is later made fun of by the other youths on the programme for crying.
Lieutenant Robbie Stokes, one of the guards running the experiment shouts: 'What in tarnation are you crying about?'
An officer squares up against one the teens in the recreation ground as they perform press ups
Six males and two females are sent to the tough jail for a week of 'radical' intervention
'I haven't even introduced you to an inmate yet and you're crying.'
One asks him: 'How come you cried so quickly?' He responds: 'I haven't had a fag, I'm tired.'
A 16-year-old called Tunde then tells him: 'I thought it was gonna be one of the girls that cried first.'
By the end of day one, Hugh is on the verge of quitting, and in the one phone call he gets he tells his mother 'I hate it, I just want to leave.'
On day two, Hugh is seen in tears again, as the youths begin work in the kitchen and laundry room.
One of the teens wear the Behaviour Attitude Modification black and white jumpsuits
One of the teens is presented with prison food and responds: 'What the f*** is that?'
A guard shouts in the face of one of the young 'inmates' after they change into their black and white prison outfits
'I don't think I've ever been so close to having a panic attack.'
After arriving at the jail via bus shortly after 6am, they are booked into the facility like other inmates.
The youngsters are then forced to change into black-and-white striped prison outfits.
They are shown their cells, issued with blankets, towels, toilet paper and spare underwear.
An aerial view of Florida's Brevard County Jail in the city of Cocoa which is home to the teenagers for a week
Florida's Brevard County Jail is surrounded by wire fences and alligator swampland, and packed with 1,600 inmates with crimes ranging from theft and prostitution to multiple murders
They are given prison food - a box of meat and mashed potato - and one of the boys says: 'I'd rather s*** in my hands and clap than eat it.'
When the boys are sent to view the maximum security wing shouts: 'I'll rape you' and another screams: 'I'll put salt in your a***. Your a*** taste better with salt.'
Lt Stokes tells the documentary: 'When they first lay eyes on me I make sure that I let them understand that you're no longer in control, I am in control of every aspect of your life.'
Channel 4's Banged Up: Teens Behind Bars begins on April 29.
More spoiled BRATS need to attend something like this. They would stop doing drugs and hanging out with gang members doing stupid shit....
ReplyDeleteyou have to remember she raised him. a boy without a father is a recipie for disaster
ReplyDelete