By Charlie Frago
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ALEXANDER, Ark. — Patrick made muffins on his last day behind the razor-topped security fence at the Alexander Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center on Friday.
The 18-year-old, who is deaf, carefully measured flour into an industrial-size mixer. The recipe was for 200, enough to put a baked good inthe belly of every child at the 143-bed facility.
Wearing a stiff white chef’s hat, he worked from instructions his teacher, Roscoe T. Sanders, penciled on scrap paper.
“All my recipes are for 100,” said Sanders, who is used to cooking for crowds. For almost 27 years, he cooked for sailors on four different aircraft carriers.
After retiring as a master chief from the U.S. Navy in 1991, Sanders worked for the departments of Correction and Community Correction before finding his way into the kitchen at the center in Saline County.
At 62, Sanders said he has found his calling.
“I guess I’m a father figure. I’m old,” he said, jokingly. “But these kids want to be here in the kitchen. They want to learn. An inmate at ADC? Lots of times, they just want to do their time and go home.” Since Sanders began working at the center four months ago, the kitchen, so dirty and forsaken that it shocked a group of visiting legislators in February, now sparkles like a Navy galley before and after Sanders teaches alternating groups of boys and girls how to bake cookies, muffins, pizza and other munchies.
The classes have been a huge hit at the troubled youth detention center, recently recommended for closure by a team of independent consultants.
“They line up to get in that class,” said Richard Barnett, assistant administrator at the center. “You want to teach them something they buy into, and I guess by definition there’s the immediate gratification of the food when it gets out of the oven. Everybody loves to eat.” The center has a history of abuse, mismanagement and educational shortfalls. In 2003, the state and the U.S. Department of Justice signed a court agreement regarding shortcomings in fire prevention, suicide prevention, religious policies and educational programs.
G4S Youth Services, a Virginiabased company that has managed the center since January and has a $10.7 million contract with the state through June, provides similar opportunities in its youth programs in Florida. Barnett said the company believes the program not only provides vocational skills to be put to use in restaurants or cafeterias, but also teaches troubled teenagers how to interact with adults and each other.
Sanders runs the kitchen like a modified Navy galley. He reprises his old role as master chief, devising the menu and supervising the work. In one class, Patrick and DeAundrey, who have worked with him since June, serve as his chiefs, teaching cooking basics to other boys.
“I’m teaching leadership,” Sanders said.
His students, whose last names aren’t being used because they are minors, cook for members of the Community Advisory Board every few months and for visiting relatives at the quarterly Family Days.
“Behind the razor wire, there’s something of a stigma,” Barnett said. “It gives them an opportunity to shine.” Kacie, 15, another cooking student, said the culinary arts class with Sanders every other day has been a bright spot since she arrived in June.
“Before the class, I hadn’t baked anything since my Easy Bake oven,” she said, giggling.
When asked what he enjoyed most about the class, DeAundrey said simply, “Mr. Sanders, he’s a good man.” Sanders, who is working toward a master’s degree in education at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said teaching children has kept him active when he “could be sitting on the couch.” Despite dealing with a population of the toughest, most violent children in state custody, the former Wrightsville Unit drill instructor said he’s never had a problem with discipline. The muffins take care of that.
“They’re not going to act out in here ‘cause they want to stay in here,” he said. “These are my kids. They say, `Mr. Sanders, can I come in your kitchen?’” Patrick, signing through an interpreter, said he never knew he would like working in a kitchen before Sanders persuaded him to join his class. Now, Patrick said, he’s leaving the youth lockup with a firm idea of what he wants to do with his life.
“I want to be a chef,” he said, touching his stiff, white hat.
Copyright 2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette