Sam Troth

so I'm 43 now bro so we're talking the late 90s yeah and you spent the first nine days so basically in solitary confinement yeah yeah bro shit myself pissed myself cried and screamed at the door till my voice was gone and they tell you that they're putting you in there to break you and they do break you and then once you're broken they put you in with the kids and then the kids break you some more and then you toe the fucking line

You become it.

You become part of it, bro.

You become part of it.

You engage in that bullying behavior.

You join in when the next new kid comes into the gym after being in a secure unit for 72 hours or five days or however long they kept him in there until he was broken.

You're the first one going, fuck, I reckon I can bash this fella.

So you go over and you give it a crack.

And then you're the kid going into the fellas' rooms at night, throwing the blanket on, bashing them.

You just conform, bro.

You find your place and you conform with what's happening.

You'd just be the person that's always getting beaten up and bullied if you don't join in.

No.

And, I mean, this is like one of the most frustrating or one of the things that stands out to me the most through my time in youth justice was no one ever sat me down and asked what was actually wrong.

You know, I had a child, youth and family or SIFS appointed social worker.

She never asked me, bro.

What's going on?

For all she knew, it could have been my dad could have been beating me.

My mom could have been beating me.

They could have been sexually abusing me.