50,000 volts welcomes daughters and sons on prison visits

It’s such a great idea no wonder the annual “Take you daughters and sons to work” day has really taken off across America.

On the fourth Thursday in April thousands upon thousands of children go to where their parents work and participate in activities and programs that will give them an inkling in what life may be like when they grow up.

Bigger and well-organized businesses have whole schedules of activities arranged for the kids, which are age-group appropriate.

What could go wrong, I hear you say? Well of course if you live in Florida and you have a parent that works in one of the state’s many prisoners you could be zapped by a stun gun … on purpose.

Unbelievably the geniuses that are in charge of prisons let corrections officers, as they are called here, zap kids as they demonstrated what they did at work. At one facility near the very pleasant coastal town of Vero Beach, kids were zapped with 50,000-volt electronic immobilization devices. Ouch.

The devices were used on kids between the ages of 8 and 14. Usually they are used on unruly inmates and they knock recipients to the ground, cause a few minutes of disorientation and leave two small burn marks.

In all, kids who visited three prisons in and around the state were zapped. Naturally an investigation has started as to who came up with this idea; some people have been suspended and of course the lawyers are already on the case.

One, representing a teenage girl, who was shocked and needed treatment, said her mother, who works at a prison, gave permission (what!) but her separated father didn’t and has decided to sue.

More bizarre stories of everyday life in Florida will I’m sure pop up in the weeks to come.