The building on the left is a high school that opened up just a few years ago. The building on the right is a state prison that's been there as long as I can remember.Now, Denver and its suburbs have grown enormously over the last 25 years or so. When that prison was built, it was basically in the middle of nowhere. Now, there's not really any "nowhere" left. That land opposite the prison couldn't be empty forever. In fact, they're soon going to begin construction on a new public library in the field you see just below the school.
Furthermore, this is a minimum security prison. And as a stand-up comedian (George Carlin, I believe) put it, it seems like a pretty safe bet to be located near a prison. If an inmate should actually escape, they wouldn't really want to be hanging around the area -- they'd want to be leaving it as quickly as possible.
Still, ours is a pretty reactionary and oftentimes superficial society. So I'm a little surprised that a school would actually be built across from a prison in the first place. I'd have expected angry protests from parents to undermine the whole thing before it ever got off the ground. A grocery store? A strip mall? Sure, go ahead. But a school? I'm just surprised it could go down that way.
Maybe the guidance counselors tell the students that if they don't shape up and start behaving, they can expect to wind up across the street.
2 comments:
My (Catholic) grade school was located right across the street from the police station, which was where the town jail was. They gave us a couple of "scared straight"-type field trips.
My town has the largest maximum security prison in our province right across the street from an elementary school. Normally, I'd think it would be a pretty safe area being a maximum securty facility and all, but we average 5 or 6 breakouts a year...
Maybe there's just something about prisons and schools that go together? Scare the kids out of a life of crime?
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