More than 180 teenagers from around Utah are going to jail Wednesday and many of them believe it will be the highlight of the week.
The group of Utah youths who will hear the prison doors slam behind them are participating in the 28th annual Freedom Academy, hosted by the Utah National Guard. They will be spending several hours at the Utah State Prison's youth offenders facility learning about freedom from those who have temporarily lost it, said Maj. Al Love, who is directing the academy for the second consecutive year.Freedom Academy participants began arriving at Camp Williams Sunday and will stay in Army barracks there through Friday while they explore the meaning of freedom by taking several field trips each day to military and government centers.
Sunday evening they heard from a Vietnam prisoner of war. Monday afternoon they shot M-16s, drove Army Jeeps, bulldozers and other large equipment, and fired artillery simulators on track-driven cannons.
The agenda for the rest of the week includes a visit to the capital, including the Supreme Court, Hill Air Force Base and several National Guard installations.
After hearing from congressional representatives and a panel discussion of Utah media, the soon-to-be high school seniors will be presented a graduation certificate and return home, hopefully, "with a finer appreciation for what freedom is," Love said. "In too many instances you take things for granted and then you don't know what you've had until it's gone."
Love says he witnesses a lot of attitude changes during the weeklong experience. "A lot are apprehensive when they arrive. They think it's a recruiting school. But they find out we're not on a recruiting mission."
Becky Bywater, 16, from Skyview High School in Smithfield, said one of her expectations from the academy is to learn better leadership qualities and gain insights into "what our leaders and our country do for us." She was only one of many participants anxious for the prison tour.
"I want to learn about government because I want to be a paralegal," said LeAnne Seely, 17, from Castle Dale.
Participants were chosen from every high school in the state, and most are student body officers.