Drug Dealers Reveal Their Emotions
Young drug dealers seeking admission to Washington’s Business Enterprise Program--a unique project for probationers--fill out an application requiring an essay on a variety of emotions: fear, jealousy, shame and greed.
The aim of the document, similar to a college entrance form, is to gain insights into an offender’s thinking process and to help determine levels of interest and motivation. Applicants range from teen-age drug dealers to multiple offenders who have committed such drug-related crimes as car theft, gun possession and attempted murder.
“These kids think and have something to say. They are not just objects going through a system. They have had some very scary things happen to them, and a lot of them have really thought about these things in really profound ways,” said Nancy Opalack, the program’s co-director.
“In a lot of ways deep down, person to person, they are like any other adolescent. But what a lot of them are missing is real guidance and contact over time with an adult who cares about them and shows how an adult really thinks.”
The yearlong program stresses development of independent thinking through a series of activities emphasizing positive personal choice. Some excerpts from the applications:
FEAR: “I fear being a young black male growing up in the drug life. So many blacks live having to scuffle to make it in such a confusing world. I don’t want to be a nobody. That’s my most important fear.”--Marquette, 17.
JEALOUSY: “When you are jealous of a person, you will do things that you will regret in the future. That’s how I got locked up. A boy my age was making money by selling drugs, and he had nice clothes, nice shoes and he kept the money. So I did the same thing and I got locked up, and now I regret it. It does not pay to be jealous.”--Theodore, 18.
SHAME: “It is a shame that I am in the system for so long and I can’t fully express myself to my aunt or anybody else. It is degrading to be incarcerated and let your friends and family down. I think shame plays a big part in my life now.”--Anthony, 18.
GREED: “Greed is an attitude as well as a personality. Greed is a disease that is sometimes incurable. Greed is a person who doesn’t know when he has had enough.”--Rickey, 18.
