VIDEO: Breaking The Jail Cycle

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- In the last few months WCBI has reported on several crimes involving teenagers being arrested and taken to jail.

In the past two weeks three teenagers, all under the age of 15, have been arrested and charged adults.

Law enforcement officers said its becoming an alarming pattern.

It’s a generational cycle. They’re parents are typically in and out of jail so it’s what they become accustomed too, and  breaking that cycle can sometimes be tough.

“When I got arrested and locked up for this charge, I lost my family, my children, my wife, my job, my house, I lost everything,” said Anthony Price who’s serving time for in the Clay County Jail for assaulting a law enforcement officer. “I was trying to do the right things in life. I have straighten my life up. I have been sober for a while, but then stress got to me and I started doing what I was doing and caught this charge.”

Price said he regrets that decision, because his jail time is keeping him away from his seven children.

“They lost their dad, they lost everything,” he expressed. “Their mama is having to take it on her own. It’s tough”

Price has only talked to his kids once since he’s been locked up.

He said he’s learned from his mistake and has turned his life around.

Now, he wants to make sure his children don’t make the same mistakes as he did.

Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott said when kids grow up seeing their parents in and out of jail in a broken home it becomes easy for the kids to follow a similar path.

“We are seeing more and more of it,” said Sheriff Scott. “More juveniles are being arrested and charged with crimes anywhere from shoplifting to robbery, so it’s getting to be a pattern that is really alarming to law enforcement.”

Law enforcement officers knows how tough it can be to break the jail cycle.

“The child has got to be taught,” Sheriff Scott explained. “You can’t just put them on the street and let them learn on their own and I think we have been seeing a whole lot of that. We’ve got to get back to the basics of raising our kids.”

The sheriff said ending generations of kids in jail takes a community effort from everyone including schools churches, but ultimately, it starts at home.

“Kids need to be involved, they need to be involved in something that’s educational and getting them ready to become an adult,” said Scott.

“This is not where they want to be,” said Price. “This ain’t a life for nobody.”