Classes teaching inmates WhyTry

SPANISH FORK — The lesson starts with a picture of four red crabs in a pot. One is already dead. Another is trying to escape the boiling water while two others try to pull it back down.

It's a powerful metaphor — especially for the six female inmates sitting in a classroom at the Utah County Jail.

They, like the crabs, are trying to escape — escape the peer pressure of negative friends, the draw of drugs and cycles of illegal behavior that keep bringing them back to jail.

Three days a week, inmates can attend a one-hour life skills class — called WhyTry — to help them adjust their way of thinking and realize the consequences of their actions.

"It makes you see things that you tried to avoid," said Liz Cutler, 40, who has been in jail 28 different times for drug-related charges. "The last thing you want to think about is what you've done to be in here."

But thanks to the class and the self-scrutiny, Cutler's new goal is to stay clean and to stay out.

The first WhyTry lesson is the "The Reality Ride," with a roller coaster that shows the consequences of a fast-and-easy track versus the harder-but-worth-it track.

Another lesson teaches inmates about labels — the labels they put on themselves and those they allow others to put on them. The challenge is to stop living up to their negative labels.

That lesson's homework? Drawing a positive label on a can entitled "The Real Me."

Simple, but effective.

Cassie Barton, a Brigham Young University sociology student, leads the discussion, making lists on the board and asking specific questions.

She writes "Who picks you up?" next to the picture of the crabs.

It's a good question because it's literal and figurative, she says.

First, who helps the inmates break their bad habits?

Second, who picks them up from the jail upon release? With former friends, it's almost a sure bet the inmates will fall back into bad habits.

Megan Jolley, 26, walked out of jail in December and got into her friend's car, where there were pills and alcohol. A month later she was back in jail.

"I'm sick of doing time," she said. "I'm tired of living the same life and expecting things to be different."

Through the life skills program, Jolley is learning how to develop defense mechanisms for turning down offers of drugs and how to avoid negative situations.

The WhyTry program was started in 1998 as a school program for at-risk youths. Now, the Provo-based company has courses going in more than 4,000 schools, mental health facilities and correctional facilities in the United States, Canada and Australia.