Placing the boys in that reservoir dog context strikes me as profoundly pessimistic. As if I've already consigned them forever to a mean region behind bars. I see clearly the plight of these boys. Part of me is tempted to school them on the various intrigues of prison. Warn them of this or that Mafia's influence behind bars, or tell them how to win respect early to escape the misfortune that awaits imprisoned men perceived as weak.
Some boys have only a romantic notion of violence.
I did, when I first started doing time. The quiet ones who could silently kill their enemies behind bars and get away with it. I fear the boys' attraction to all that. It's the fear that conservative adults have about teaching sex in schools. I'm afraid that explaining the etiquette of prison will only embellish their imaginations about how best to fit into the culture of that incarcerated world.