Technical Difficulties

G making the rounds with his stack of papers: decidedly un-21st century

For those Homeboys and Homegirls who join us after years of incarceration, computer skills can be daunting. One Homeboy came to us with the proclamation "Yo, I wanna take some classes, but I'm not gonna f*** with a computer." Of course, after a month or two here, he shyly approached a tutor in the computer lab and said "Okay, how does this s*** work?" Now he's clacking away. However, an incomplete understanding of the advances in computer technology over the last decade is not unique to our trainees.

Father G. is always in a whirlwind of activity here, constantly coming or going to speaking events, and when he is at headquarters he tries to spend most of his time in the glass-walled office right behind reception, where you can see him leaning in with an intense focus toward whichever new recruit or newly released Homeboy happens to be asking him for a second chance. Sometimes, though, he has time to pop up to the offices and banter for a moment before dashing off again.

With the recent success of our Facebook page (we’ve grown to over 18,000 fans), many of the staff members here have signed on, Father G. included. The other day he came up, slightly flustered but bemused.

“Er,” he said, “I think we have a problem on my Facebook”

We looked at him, waiting.

“Well, I don’t really know how the tagging pictures things work. I don’t know what tagging is. I never put anything up.... anyway, some board members have come to me a little concerned about the racy pictures of me? How do I get them off?”

We navigated to his Facebook page. The first picture, splashed provocatively across the page, wasn’t exactly of him. It was tagged in an album labeled “sexxxy pics” and featured a very buxom young black woman in pink booty shorts and a tight cropped tank top revealing ample bosom, laying seductively on her side and giving the camera an intensely er, beckoning, look. Father G. sighed bravely in recognition, and we tried to pass off laughter while explaining how to detag.