Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth

Coach Sandy Brown and Assistant Coach Lester Ward coach a team for the Giddings State School. Ward says, “Football is a way a kid can open up and express himself in a positive way […] I hate for these kids to lead squashed lives because they’ve never opened up and expressed what’s inside them” (95-96). Believing that sports build character, the school administrators allowed the school to develop a team that would play regular schools as well as those populated by prisoners: “Each season, Brown and Ward take a group of murderers, rapists, and armed robbers and turn them into football players. Their record would make them the toast of the Rotary in any Texas town” (98).

Thanks to the coaches’ mentorship, the players win season after season. This chapter covers three football games in detail, in all of which the Giddings team triumph. The players struggle with defeat, despite having been conditioned to expect it. When a player enters the game, despite any optimism he may have, “somewhere deep down inside, he is harboring a nasty secret. He expects something to go wrong, because something has always gone wrong. Which is, of course, exactly what losers do (104-05).

It takes extra effort for the coaches to remind the players that they need to support each other on the field when things don’t go their way. This runs contrary to their experience of life but will be a valuable lesson once they’re back in the outside world.

The team’s star player, Jerrold, had a difficult childhood, as did the other players. He has no memory of ever smiling during his youth as a gang member. After playing football, however, he says, “I never experienced the things out there that I have here inside […] The joy, the good times, the love from other teammates. It feels good to experience those things, even if you are locked up” (112). As a result, the end of the season is bittersweet for the players. Being on the field is the most freedom they’ve known for years, and it is difficult for them to know they’ll have to wait another season to have that feeling again. At the same time, they’ve learned valuable life lessons from their football experiences. As their coach points out, “This season has been the most fun these boys have ever had. This is the first time they have experienced success. Their teammates are the first true friends they have made” (117).

Now that Ronnie has finished telling his life story, he’s required to tell his crime story. The idea frightens him, as it does all the boys. However, the fear is a healthy response because it indicates remorse—and a lack of remorse can indicate sociopathy. Therefore, the therapists are on alert when the students share their crime stories, knowing that a boy who is emotionally detached or who even takes pleasure in his violent history might exhibit pathological tendencies. One therapist says that some people are innately less empathic, and when these people endure abuse throughout their developmental years, the trauma can lead to dangerous antisocial behavior; such people are more resistant to rehabilitation. When such students can’t graduate from the COG program, they will probably end up in prison for life.

Ronnie knows all of this as he begins sharing his narrative. He talks about the day that he found Jimmie’s pistol; holding the gun made him feel “powerful,” and he decided to terrorize his younger brother, who was in his room with videogames. Ronnie aimed the gun at Kenny and pulled the trigger, feeling no remorse. When the gun didn’t fire, he aimed it at his own head, not caring whether he died either. At that moment, Jimmie walked in and took the gun from Ronnie. He aimed upward and fired a bullet into the ceiling. Apparently, the chamber had been empty when Ronnie tried to fire the gun.

Rather than being angry, Jimmie was pleased by Ronnie’s risky behavior. Ronnie recalls, “After I almost killed myself with the gun, I kind of bonded with my stepdad. […] We drank, smoked weed, did drugs. The only kind of affection I was getting was getting high with him”(126). Eventually, Ronnie became part of Jimmie’s drug operation and started breaking into houses with his cousins, enjoying the acceptance into their group. Furious at Jimmie’s influence, Marina left with Kenny and got a court order to take Ronnie with her, but he refused to go. He enjoyed feeling like part of the pack. The author concludes, “Next to the need to survive, a human being needs to form connections. If no loving figure is around, he will bond with his abuser and seek power, control, and recognition in ways he learns from his oppressor” (135).

Ronnie advances to the crime story that landed him in jail. While he and his cousins ran a burglary ring, they indulged in increasingly risky behavior. Rather than stealing from an empty home, they hoped that the occupants would be in the house so they could terrorize them. One night, Ronnie’s pack broke into the home of an elderly couple. When they threatened the owners, one almost had a heart attack, which they prevented by giving him his medication. Ronnie threatened to kill the man if he didn’t lead them to his safe.

The owner told Ronnie he didn’t have a safe, but he had a checking account of $7,000, so Ronnie and a cousin drove the couple to a motel to wait until the banks opened. The next morning, Ronnie left with the man, intending to have him withdraw the money. On the way to the bank, Ronnie stopped for gas, but after he got out of the car, the man locked him out and drove away. As he recounts this, Ronnie admits to the group that he would have killed the man after the robbery anyway. Ronnie ran to Jimmie’s home, but Jimmie kicked him out. Next, he went to his mother’s house. When Marina saw Ronnie on the evening news as a robbery suspect, she convinced him to turn himself in.

These are the events that Ronnie and the others will reenact through role-play. In the early stages of the break-in scene, Ronnie is so distraught that another boy needs to take his place. One of the therapists coaches him from the sidelines that he must observe what is happening from the perspective of the man he victimized:

At this point the role play begins to feel like an exorcism. If you didn’t know better, you would swear demons were leaving Ronnie and swirling around him […] ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’ Ronnie keeps saying as his tears soak Josh’s T-shirt (140).

After a grueling session, it’s clear that Ronnie has developed empathy for his victim and regrets his behavior. He has passed the COG program and will be released.

On graduation day, Marina arrives at the school to see Ronnie. She is proud that her son will get a fresh start. She has also made some constructive changes, such as quitting cocaine, joining a church, and dating someone stable. Marina is cautioned that Ronnie will face new challenges once he’s outside Giddings. The therapist tells her that the program has tried to equip Ronnie with the tools he’ll need to cope with stress, but this “success plan” is a matter of life and death. If Ronnie doesn’t follow it, there could be grave consequences.

Unlike Ronnie who takes his shot at freedom seriously, other students fail and even end up with life sentences. Though it costs the State of Texas $160,000 to put someone through the COG program, a boy who fails and enters the prison system will ultimately cost the state $626,000 within a 40-year sentence.