From troubled teen to corrections officer

Hannah Keller, a Correctional Officer at the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center in Dickinson, ND, is a much different person than the angry 13-year-old who arrived at the Ranch 11 years ago.

“I had a lot of aggression that I had no control over,” Hannah said. “I would go from zero to a hundred, and anything could make me mad and go off on my family. I could flip on a dime over the food being cooked wrong.”

Hannah’s family did everything they could to help her. She had been diagnosed with ADHD and was prescribed many different medications, but none of them worked. They took her to a therapist, and when that wasn’t helping, her therapist recommended they consider residential treatment at the Ranch.

At the Ranch, Hannah made significant progress with her emotions and behaviors, in school, and in growing her Christian faith, but it didn’t start out well.

“I refused to eat or participate in treatment, because those were the only things I had control over,” Hannah said.

When Ranch staff continued to be kind and caring, despite her behaviors, Hannah realized it wasn’t so bad, and she started going to therapy.

“I had some testing done, and when those results came back, we found out that I was autistic and bipolar,” she said. “I got put on the proper medications and I think those helped as well as learning new coping skills.”

Every child at the Ranch is assigned a “primary” residential treatment specialist, someone who takes them on one-on-one outings off campus and to whom they can go to when they are struggling. Hannah’s primary, Amanda, helped her cope when things got hard.

“Amanda gave me a journal. I would write down things I was experiencing, and at the end of the night I’d leave it on my desk,” Hannah said. “She would grab it and write a response, usually giving me some new ideas to try. I slowly started to show improvement.”

“I started to open up about how I was feeling instead of bottling it up and being like a ticking time bomb. I felt comfortable going to Amanda and saying, ‘Hey, this is how I’m feeling. What can I do to improve it?'”

Hannah started requesting to go to therapy more often and learned that talking with her therapist, Sara, was more beneficial than holding it all inside. She also spent valuable time in the greenhouse, where she could practice the new things she was learning about dealing with her anger.

“Being around plants and trying to get them to grow was a learning curve. I got frustrated and had to learn how to work out that frustration,” Hannah said. “I also went to school at the Ranch and that was a situation too because I wasn’t a big academic person. I started to answer questions and participate.”

“I think the Ranch helped me appreciate school. I went from being a C and D student to an A and B student. When I came back home, my grades stayed the same and I excelled. I learned how to say, ‘Hey, I’m not understanding this. Is there a different way you can teach this to me?'”

The Ranch’s Christian foundation led to Hannah reaffirming her faith during a special service.

“We weren’t big churchgoers,” Hannah said. “But, at the Ranch, I went to church every single week. I memorized the Lord’s Prayer, affirmed my faith, and got involved in all sorts of activities that involved the church. I learned that no matter what you do or how you feel, you will be forgiven. Sometimes when I’m having a hard day, I’ll just be like, ‘Lord, please help me with today.’ Even if it’s just the simplest prayer in my head, giving Him my problems can relieve my stress a little bit.”

Hannah finds herself using many of the things she learned at the Ranch in her work as a corrections officer, where she helps adults rehabilitate back into society. She said she watched Ranch staff communicate with the kids and learned how to approach topics with the inmates and to be a good listener.

“My life now is pretty amazing,” Hannah said. “Working at the Correction Center is hard, but the experiences I had at the Ranch taught me how to figure out ways to deal with the high stress. I would say that I’m thriving right now. I get along great with my family, I have some really nice friends, and I love my job. I’m very proud of the person I’ve become and I know my family is very proud.”

When asked where she thinks she would be if it weren’t for her time at the Ranch, Hannah said, “Honestly, I would have to say that I’d probably be on the other side of a jail cell. I was always told I was going to be the sibling that ended up in jail. Granted, I do go to jail every day, but I’m working and on the opposite side. I never would have been able to do this job without the Ranch.