Smith aims to curtail offenders through programs
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Jasper Police officers conducted a two-day program at the Boys and Girls Club of Jasper to warn the children of alcohol and drug abuse.

While the officers spoke to the students, it was Contrell Thompson who hit home with the children of the club.

Thompson, a convicted felon from Jasper, talked to the kids about his experiences with the drug world.

"(Thompson) is on hand - he has seen everything," said Willie Smith, director of the Boys and Girls Club of Jasper. "He has done the things that we have preached to them not to do. He was able to tell them things about what to expect on the other side and the consequences that you have to pay for doing some of the things that you have been taught not to do."

Thompson stressed the importance of a good education.

For Smith, the program was needed to buffer what he has been teaching at the club for years.

"This was a presentation that needed to be done because I am seeing a lot of little kids who have gone through my program that are now in gangs and selling drugs," Smith said. "I wanted to emphasize to the kids that there is a meaning behind all these courses that we give them."

He said he is hurt by the fact that several young children who attended the club are now finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.

"I am seeing kids that are now involved in the same tactics that we were schooling them not to get into," Smith said. "When I was growing up, there were a few prisons and now they are building a new one every day and they are not doing that for nothing."

On Tuesday, June 12, Jasper DARE officer Wanda Brister presented a program about cigarettes, alcohol, drug abuse, 911 calling, gang participation and gun safety.

On Wednesday, June 13, Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter, Detective Mike Poindexter and Criminal Investigation officer Connie Jordan visited with the students.

"I think the program hit home with the kids when Thompson spoke to them," Smith said. "He talked to them about things that go on inside the prison system and things they didn't want to be associated with. The scare tactics are something really effective."

Smith said the key to these programs is the kids staying attentive during them. He said when Thompson spoke, "the kids listened to what he said."

Smith said he would like to have this program over and over again at the Club during the school year.

"You have to continue to instill this information into them over and over again," Smith said. "We just drill in them time and time again so when the time comes that they are introduced to drugs or gang-type warfare, they will know how to walk away."