Fry’s Girls: The Youth Diversion Program at CCWF

The Youth Diversion Program (YDP) at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) provides impressionable young minds with a glimpse of the underbelly of the prison industrial system by exposing them to a day in the life of an incarcerated individual. Through a combination of tough love and illustrative skits, this curriculum embraces, empowers, and enriches the minors involved.

The YDP Team

Lt. B. Warren and our very own Warden Anissa De La Cruz, who was Captain at the time conceptualized and created YDP in 2017.

Program Coordinator G. Fry, a former third grade teacher, has spent six years working at CCWF as college coordinator for Merced College. Her dedication towards aiding the rehabilitative endeavors of incarcerated individuals is legendary here in CCWF. Fry and her team were the California Model before the concept caught fire in the carceral zeitgeist.

The heart of the YDP are Fry’s girls, as they are often referred to, who one can see on “tour” day, dressed in creased state blue jeans and gray t-shirts emblazoned with the YDP logo, their outward appearance echoing their inner message: uniformity and unity of mind and mission.

These volunteers are culled from the general population after undergoing a strict vetting process and submitting to intense multi-paneled interviews. Their participation is voluntary and the work is emotionally taxing yet rewarding in monumental, far-reaching ways. All of these young women are gainfully employed and attend, or facilitate self-help groups, so time is a premium for them.

At any given time, there are between 20 or 25 mentors on the YDP roster, and member selection is conducted every couple of years or as needed.

Kaylee Weisenberg, serving a life sentence for a DUI offense, has been a member since 2021. She believes her work with YDP can hopefully deter minors from making the same bad choices she did.

“This is my living amends at work,” she said.

Latoya Jenkins, a lifer and puppy trainer, has been a member of YDP since its inception. Hers is the booming voice the minors encounter during the gauntlet. She believes YDP provides a realistic picture of prison, and the chance to hear and learn from the stories of their mentors.

Starting with tough love

On Oct. 10, 2024, the fateful day when the minors are bussed in, from Phoenix Secondary Academy in Fresno, the energy crackles with anticipatory tension. As anyone involved with raising a teenager can attest to, they are nothing if not unpredictable.

The tour begins with the line-up, a gauntlet sandwiching the minors, effectively corralling them in while simultaneously ensconcing them with their very own protective detail.

Immediately the “yellers,” YDPs’ in-house drill sergeants, take over and establish control, delineating the parameters of what will and will not be tolerated. The message to be driven home is simple; prison is not a place you want to be. It’s a place where you cedes all aspects of autonomy, identity and privacy while sequestered from everyone and everything you hold dear.

The gauntlet proves its effectiveness as right away, beneath the smirking attitudinal faces, the vestiges of lost children begin to appear, in the form of furiously blinking eyes brimming with tears.

Marching in tandem to the booming voices of the yellers, the minors are introduced to squalid claustrophobic living quarters, the communal bathrooms, and the showers alive with rust where flimsy partitions pretending to afford potential users with a modicum of privacy.

The march continues back to the prison visiting rooms. By this time, one could definitely hear the occasional sniffle followed by the furious wiping of tears that had and continue to fall.

Back in the visiting rooms, CCWF staff as well as chaperones from Phoenix Academy are present at all times, for obvious security reasons.

Learning through empathy

Having gotten past the false bravado and sullen defiance, it was time for phase two – life lessons delivered with empathy through a series of interactive exercises and skits.

During one poignant skit the pitfalls of succumbing to peer pressure and drug use are driven home by a chilling visual, at first obscured by a hospital privacy screen, and then revealed to show a gruesome montage replete with an “occupied” cardboard coffin, candles and funeral flowers.

Another perennial problem plaguing disaffected youth is misdirected anger, and that is tackled by using an ‘anger blanket’ as a metaphor. In this way the YDP members are able to clearly illustrate the pain that often lies beneath the anger and how to address those hurt feelings instead of erupting and lashing out in violence.

Midday arrives and it’s lunchtime. Over a meager state issue peanut butter and jelly lunch, mentors and mentees spend crucial time getting acquainted and discussing any issues the minors may be experiencing. These pivotal moments provide the minors space to ventilate their feelings in a safe non-judgmental environment; they serve as a catalyst to jumpstart the bonds that are beginning to form.

As the day wraps up, a YDP favorite, the “I am worthy” exercise engages all those present – staff and volunteers included- as each group takes turns loudly proclaiming ‘I am worthy’ in a competition to see who is the loudest.

Clearly impressed by the event so far, Pedro Vasquez, Phoenix Academy school counselor, said, “They are so resilient, they just have to be willing to learn and the protective factors of positive influences will help them succeed.”

Correctional Counselor III Flavilla Singleton said, “My involvement with YDP is one of the highlights of my career, because it gives me an opportunity to work with the youth in our community to prevent the cycles of violence from happening. It also assists me in better understanding the youth from the standpoint of a coach.

The final “whisper exercise,” has the minors seated in a circle with their eyes closed as YDP members walk around and whisper statements in their ears – statements the minors had expressed needing to hear from the loved ones in their lives. The statements ranging from “I love you,” to “I will never leave you again,” are simple, yet clearly moving, as evidenced by the tears, from both minors and YDP members.

By utilizing a holistic approach, YDP targets emotions, substance use, peer pressure, and even familial dysfunction. And unlike other scared straight programs, YDP allows the minors, should they choose, to remain in contact with their mentor, so that they can form the healthy, positive bonds that many of them lack and desperately need.

At the end, there were tears, hugs, and bonds where before there were none. They were now family when before they were strangers. Today they walk away internally richer, a far cry from the paucity of their pasts. Today they have experienced a journey into the transformative power of community in action.

Today and every day, it is our collective hope that this journey positively impacts their tomorrows, improves their outlooks, and allows their dreams to become realities.