Beyond the Bars: Athens children visit prison to hopefully not return
ATHENS — Do not talk. Hands behind your back. Keep your place in line.
Eleven children enter a cinder block room with a concrete floor. The youngest is 9. The oldest is 15. A metal door slams shut.
On this Saturday morning in May, they will tour the Clarke County Correctional Institution and listen to a prison inmate’s plea to the kids to avoid the mistakes that brought him here.
“This is not a playground,” Sgt. Andre Greene says. “This is a dangerous place.”
This isn’t Scared Straight. Greene is stern but respectful. He guides the group into a dorm built for 12 inmates: six bunk beds, two toilets and one TV.
“A penthouse,” Greene calls it.
He passes around a plastic bag containing jail-issued toiletries: a toothbrush the size of a golf pencil and tiny packets of powdered deodorant and shampoo.
Then it’s on to a solitary confinement cell, where inmates go when they fail to follow rules. The deeper into the prison the children travel, the smaller the spaces become.
“This is not where you want to be,” Greene says. “That’s why you are here. I don’t want you to go through this.”
Beyond the Bars targets youth violence
Programs like Beyond the Bars emerged in Athens during a turbulent stretch for youth violence.
Police data shows a rise in the city’s gang activity over the past decade, intensifying during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, 3-year-old Kyron Santino Zarco Smith was shot and killed while watching cartoons inside his home. Months later, 20-year-old Cameron Manago was killed in another shooting.
Four of the five people arrested in the two killings were teenagers. Authorities alleged those charged had ties to street gangs.
Overall, Athens-Clarke County had the 10th-highest crime rate among Georgia’s 159 counties in 2024, according to GBI data. Much of the crime takes place away from the campus of the University of Georgia, the state’s flagship university.
The violence forced Athens leaders to rethink how the community intervenes with at-risk children before they enter the criminal justice system.
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department expanded its gang unit. In 2022, the county approved $7 million in American Rescue Plan funding for youth development and violence prevention initiatives.
The county partnered with the school district and UGA to expand youth sports access. The Boys & Girls Clubs reopened community centers and created an innovation hub inside a struggling mall to give teenagers a place to gather outside school hours.
Beyond the Bars pulls from each corner of that effort — law enforcement, nonprofit leaders, educators and community volunteers.
Program also counsels parents of at-risk youth
While the children tour the jail, their guardians remain in the facility chapel. There are moms, dads and grandmothers. Some children arrived alone.
Shane Sims is a certified addiction recovery specialist, executive director of a nonprofit and chaplain at the local jail. His role in the program is helping adults better understand children’s behavior.
“It’s not about what’s wrong with your child,” Sims says. “It’s about what happened to them. Stop chastising and start listening.”
Some of the children here today have already used marijuana and alcohol. Others have transferred from public schools to alternative programs, struggle with hygiene or frequently speak disrespectfully to parents.
Sims tells the adults that behavior is often communication rather than defiance.
“Connection is more powerful than control,” Sims says. “The tendency to control is tempting, but it is not beneficial.”
Affirmation, he says, is one of the most effective tools a parent can use.
“Hey, I don’t agree with what you did, but I understand,” Sims says. “That creates space for a child to open up.”
Only then, he says, can families address the root causes of destructive behavior instead of merely punishing the symptoms.
“Your child does not need a perfect parent,” Sims says. “Your child needs a safe, loving and consistent parent.”
‘Don’t do to your mama what I did to mine,’ inmate warns young visitors
The children’s tour is almost over as they enter the kitchen and dining area. Inmates often eat bologna sandwiches, Greene tells them. Spaghetti is considered fine dining.
Marcus Lawson steps in front of the children seated at tables. Lawson and his brother were sentenced to 30 years in prison for numerous offenses related to the robbery of taxicab drivers.
Lawson says he hasn’t seen his brother in two decades. He tells the children his mother’s life fell apart after her sons were sent to prison. She and his grandmother have since died.
Lawson says decisions he made as a teenager led him here: running with the wrong crowd, gravitating to negative influences and choosing crime over work.
“There’s a big, big world out there,” Lawson says. “God wants you to see it, but you ain’t going to see behind these doors.”
Make the proper choices for yourself, Lawson says, adding: “Don’t do to your mama what I did to mine.”
As he speaks, tears stream down the face of 9-year-old Jaquez Willis.
When asked later what the day made him want to do, Willis said: “Being good to my mom.”
Athens police point to signs of progress
Athens officials say violent and property crime have declined significantly in recent years, offering cautious optimism.
Between 2021 and 2025, aggravated assaults dropped 25%, while robberies fell by nearly three-quarters, part of a national decline after the pandemic. Burglaries, vehicle break-ins and motor vehicle thefts — crimes police say are often committed by teenagers — also declined sharply in Athens.
Lt. Shaun Barnett said the Athens gang task force seized 58 firearms in 2025 alone. Barnett, who has children in local schools, said his own family has benefited from some of the city’s youth initiatives. His children are among the roughly 1,600 participants in youth sports programs supported through partnerships between local government, the school district and UGA.
“We’ve seen in recent years, things have been built up, implemented and added,” Barnett said. “As we progress through these years, we’ve seen crime go down. It has to be a multifaceted approach.”
Each third Saturday of the month, Beyond the Bars accepts up to 14 children and their guardians. The prison tour and meetings last only a few hours, but organizers like Sims continue working with families afterward, connecting them with resources and support.
Jayden Burgess, 14, has attended three sessions. His father and uncle are both in prison.
Burgess says he wants to become either a dirt bike rider or a fashion designer.
“I just keep coming back,” Burgess said. “That way I can keep doing better.”
About the Author
Fletcher Page is Athens bureau chief covering northeast Georgia for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
