No escaping the mighty James

In my lifetime, I had many experiences with the James River however none as eventful as Col. William “Park” Lemmond, Virginia Tech graduate and my reporting official within the Air Force Reserve, who had the engine to his F-86 jet fail at low stage as he was flying east alongside the river from Richmond.

He blew the cover and pulled the lever to discharge the seat however nothing occurred. He then inverted the jet and fell out cleanly earlier than parachuting into the mouth of the river and being picked up by a yacht. Had he not splashed into the James as he did with {a partially} opened chute and at a 45-degree descent angle, he might not have survived. 

You would possibly say there was at all times linkage for me with associates, relations or straight with the mighty James River and a sure diploma of survival. At an early age after I would go to Charlottesville with Mom on Route 20, she would boast that Landon Fitzpatrick, my grandfather,1874-1964, swam the river at Scottsville. He was initially from Nelson County so perhaps he was crossing the river to see Martha Morris, 1874-1962, my grandmother in Buckingham County close to the Willis Mountain the place they lived after marriage and raised my mom and 6 different youngsters. 

When I labored with John Dishman of Kingsville and the Prince Edward County School System, we maintained closed faculties in Prince Edward County and open ones in Cumberland County and I might eat lunch by the river close to the outdated iron bridge (Route 45) at Cartersville. Dink Wright and Freddie Wilson have been the opposite upkeep staff. 

Little did I do know it on the time, however when my faculty at Worsham performed a softball recreation with a crew of “rowdies” from what we will check with as Juvenile Correctional Center No. 1 (to guard the responsible and incarcerated) my destiny could be sealed with the James River and the juvenile correctional system. 

Center No. 1 was in a pretty sufficient location overlooking the river and the complicated was in entrance of a nonetheless standing antebellum plantation home. The middle in Powhatan County was on a big curve to the river that gave it intensive river viewing. 

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After school (bachelor’s diploma in psychology on the University of Virginia), energetic obligation with the Air Force after which the Reserves, and a few legal justice jobs I turned an assistant superintendent at Center No. 1. The solely “A” I received at UVA was in legal justice so I knew I used to be heading in the right direction. I had by no means been arrested for any crimes and the one time when cops chased me at UVA for selecting up a “Keep Off the Grass” signal, they couldn’t catch me. No one paid any consideration to my picketing with the signal anyway that I discovered mendacity on the bottom. 

Some known as Center No. 1 the “Funny Farm,” both due to the purchasers or the best way it was run, I used to be by no means certain. At Worsham it regarded like we have been taking part in a softball recreation with the “Funny Farm” when the Center No. 1 left fielder positioned himself below a fly ball after which ran the opposite means simply earlier than the ball dropped, laughing and appearing loopy the entire time. 

At occasions Center No. 1 would have as many as 350 “charges” and the workers have been supposed to maintain them inside a campus-like setting with a faculty, cottages (two of which have been management items), eating corridor, inside leisure area and infirmary. Staff included psychologists and a minister.

No safety fence was across the complicated however there have been two small, fenced in leisure areas behind the 2 management items, the place “wards” have been stored who have been decided to hold over their excessive misbehavior to an incarcerated setting. We weren’t alleged to name them inmates.

Some of the seasoned criminals, normally from ages 12 to 21, that we housed had dedicated critical crimes to incorporate a number of murders. Check out the rap sheet of the Briley brothers who escaped from the large home, pretending {that a} wrapped fireplace extinguisher was a bomb, at Mecklenburg Correctional Center. One of them had been at Center No. 1. 

When I walked within the door on the middle, somebody had evidently instructed the superintendent that I knew one thing concerning the woods. Maybe Carlton Elder from Kingsville (the place I additionally was from), who was the chief of upkeep. My woodlore had been discovered each in Prince Edward and Buckingham counties the place I spent most of my down time from faculty and associated homework and sports activities. Had it not been for sports activities, UVA wouldn’t have even regarded my means.

My uncle, Metellus Fitzpatrick (1900-1994), close to Willis Mountain, took me below his wing after I was age 12 and I lived and breathed within the woods. He had about 20 blue tic and crimson bone herring hounds and hunted large recreation and varmints year-round. I discovered how you can keep up a lot of the evening ‘coon searching with him. Mom at all times stored English setters and I devoutly took them to the fields close to our dwelling at Kingsville to hunt out the numerous coveys of quail that existed within the Nineteen Fifties. 

At the middle, I used to be despatched to the storeroom and issued pull over, bib sort overalls; gloves, brogue sneakers; and a fairly sturdy cap together with a two- means radio. After receiving the garments and tools, I discovered I might be chairman of the Absent Without Leave (AWOL) Committee. It ought to have been named the Escape and Apprehension Committee. 

Later after fellow fugitive chasers and I turned so concerned in pursuits alongside and within the James River, I puzzled the place flippers, perhaps even a snorkel, or a quick canoe could be assigned. They by no means have been. 

At first the AWOL a part of the job was comparatively simple as a result of the upkeep division penned monitoring hounds on the premises subsequent to workers homes. There was on the common an tried escape each week, however the escapees didn’t get very far since most of them have been “city slickers” who have been terrified of the woods and we may monitor them with the canines. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Hounds of the Baskervilles” would have a tough time competing with the certain noses of the hounds that we had. 

The middle had gone from principally a “mom and pop” operation that primarily housed gentle offenders, akin to truancy circumstances, within the Thirties to robust as nails wards within the Eighties. Having live-in adults within the cottages ended when a ward stole a revolver stored by the grownup male “in keeper” and shot him within the abdomen (fortuitously he survived).

Not solely was I chasing AWOLs, however I stored my two-way radio on in my workplace so I may hearken to and reply to requires help from workers when wards received out of hand. I discovered you need to by no means return punches in opposition to wards irrespective of how a lot you needed to. Wrestling and pinning to the ground turned an artwork. A principal on the faculty rabbit punched a ward within the abdomen after the ward hit him within the head with a forged on his arm. The principal was transferred to the grownup system.

Gangs from Northern Virginia and Tidewater have been discovering their means into the middle, e.g., Crips and Bloods, so all hands-on deck have been wanted with a number of the scuffles. 

When I ate on the eating corridor, I by no means turned away from the wards as this was a fantastic enviornment for one group to show its superiority over one other group. The finest solution to suppress a struggle was to take out the ring chief as quickly as he acted up — to the ground he went after which to a management unit. My rugby days at UVA got here again full power.

The AWOL Committee virtually mutinied after I instructed them the Central Office was eliminating the monitoring canines as a result of these in cost at their distant, comfy desks thought their use smacked an excessive amount of of slavery occasions. We have been instructed no safety fence could be constructed across the complicated and we must monitor escapees on our personal. 

Brian Worsham, a pilot on the upkeep workers, and I mentioned constructing an air strip and utilizing an airplane to identify escapees. But for the reason that state may hardly furnish us with dependable autos, we determined that was out of the query. 

In a means I form of relished James Finmore Cooper’s “Pathway” and Native American-type methods of monitoring. We discovered how you can spot indicators, i.e., brogue shoe tracks (which all wards wore), knew the same old escape routes and positioned workers on stands at key intersections to identify any human motion by means of the woods. 

The river by no means stopped having enjoyable with the craziness. Because it wound across the middle’s escapees would generally get confused about which path to take. (Of course, most of them needed to get to Richmond and have been misplaced in an city setting). Once we apprehended a ward pounding his fists into the bottom close to the middle. He was utterly discombobulated over the place he was.

On one escape, we acquired phrase {that a} ward had fled to an island in the course of the river and wouldn’t go away despite prompting from workers on either side. A cottage counselor and I have been on the north aspect of the river and it started to get darkish. He had performed soccer on the University of Richmond and I requested him if he could be a “buddy system” for wading/swimming to the island.

We stripped right down to our undershorts and took off for the island with handcuffs above our head after we had footing with our heads above the water. The ward chickened out when he noticed us coming and went to the opposite aspect of the river to ready workers on the alternative aspect of the river. Went again to my state automobile holding my garments in my hand and a girl on her porch started complaining about my skimpy apparel. Just one other day on the middle. 

On my final day at Center No. 1 earlier than being transferred to a lady’s facility close to Richmond, two wards stole a kayak and started paddling east. We caught these escapees when a safety officer at James River Correctional Center noticed them on the river and yelled for them to cease. One ward fell out and was captured and one other took the kayak to an island the place he was caught. 

I as soon as once more requested the superintendent a couple of boat, ideally with a motor, for workers earlier than being reassigned. He simply smiled. Maybe he knew then that Gov. George Allen would construct a 12-foot-high safety fence with concertina wire on the high round a lot of the facilities. That helped however didn’t show to be a whole panacea for escapes — to be mentioned in later articles. 

I used to be assigned to Center No. 1 two occasions and on the third time, pending switch, I retired. At age 66, I had seen sufficient pleasure within the legal justice system and simply needed to drift the James River within the household canoe. 

All of the rivers I explored in my youth whereas searching, such because the Willis, the Appomattox, the Briery, the Bush, and the Sandy, flowed into the James River. The James River is large time and it was ready for and at all times so ever sort to my household and pals.

Try getting within the river above Goochland Court House after which getting out at Maiden’s Landing. Look up the secondary street to the place Center No. 1 was and replicate on the previous the place the Commonwealth of Virginia stored youth till they hopefully matured and altered sufficient to not be engaged in the identical crooked patterns. 

Most of the juvenile correctional facilities have now closed as a result of these in cost now assume nurturing, midway homes and even no sentences will redeem the lawless. Good luck.