Since the beginning of the year, he said, the prison has settled down. The staff has gained in experience. They've learned how to deal with the guys. Trippett said the kids at the youth prison are tougher to handle than the older, hard-core criminals at Jackson. You get a lot of people without self-control.
Adults are easier to handle.
Most of the adults, you can reason with. Here, you're speaking to a child, and kids are kids. But you get them alone, away from the crowd, and they're really wimps. Kids always want to show off, but you get 'em alone, and they sit and cry. Guards sometimes must handle them like kids, he said.