Kenny Braun’s elegant photography has appeared in The Austin Chronicle for years. We are honored to share his photo essay on the Travis County Community Supervision & Corrections Department SMART Program. Originally an alcohol rehab service (SMART stands for “Supervision & Monitoring of Alcohol-Related Treatment”), the ropes challenge course has since evolved to meet the changing needs of the times.
When we initially asked the program’s energetic facilitator Gregory Glover to contribute captions and write a bit about the breathtaking work he does every day, we had no idea that his words would be so moving. His take on the Texas penal system comes from direct experience within those walls and frames Braun’s photos so effectively that we decided to include his essay below. — Kate X Messer
Let’s say children are a piece of clay molded in their parents’ image … what happens when their sculptors never show up? Kids who live with this sort of disadvantage too often learn survival from their peers — this usually means gangs, which often means they become involved in some form of criminal behavior. Some of these kids grow up to find the power and respect that has been lacking their entire lives by dealing drugs. People come to them. They possess clothes, cars, jewelry, even other people, and surround themselves with status symbols of wealth and power. Others become slave to the needle, shooting an altered state into their depressing existence. Others drown their sorrows in reckless nights, leaving a paper trail of divorce, DUI, and denial.
Don’t feel sorry for them; pity only validates their lousy pasts. My work shows me that it is more important to teach new skills, to help develop light at the end of bleak tunnels. I facilitate the SMART Program’s ropes challenge course activities for Travis County.
The SMART Program is an intensive four-month treatment program for probationers. The goal of SMART is to reintegrate residents into the mainstream of society, thus providing an alternative sentencing option for courts that determine the fates of felons convicted in drug and alcohol-related cases.
It saddens me to see inmates who don’t get treatment chilling out behind the fence, either doing nothing or being offered very little in the way of rehab. They sit in gymnasium-sized day rooms, staring at tilted, elevated televisions blaring episodes of Jerry Springer, while fellow inmates get their next cheap tattoos. It seems that the penal system is a big joke to them; as far as they are concerned, they’re getting “three squares and a cot,” fattening up for release while networking with other criminals. Free medical, free food, no bills, no skills.
The SMART Program holds residents responsible for their behaviors, and helps develop solutions and provide options to empower them to make smarter decisions about life. Life skills coordinator Delores Martinez helps them with GEDs and résumés and takes them to job fairs. We have counselors who offer brutally honest feedback to encourage a change in their behaviors so that they might learn to develop healthy relationships and do the right thing. Once oriented into the program, residents travel all over Travis County every day to perform community service. They feed the homeless at Caritas, pass out food and clothing at community centers in East Austin, and work at Capital Area Food Bank. They help sponsor Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth, the Safe Place Walk, Spanish Health Fest, and other activities. They develop a sense of pride in their community. Once the program is completed, participants are subject to a rigorous six-month follow-up aftercare program in hopes that they take their newly learned lessons to heart.
On the ropes course, residents are taught communication, planning, realistic goal-setting, and teamwork. They learn to trust each other, challenge their bodies mentally and physically, and become tuned in to the world.
It’s so easy for us to tune them out.
I see miracles every day, broken pieces of clay molded back into new pieces of art, ready to show the world they are worth keeping.
Gregory Glover also facilitates team-building and corporate coaching at Ropes Works in Wimberley, 894-0936.
This article appears in June 16 • 2000.