MCDERMITT - The United States prison system seems to have been in a constant state of reformation since the end of the Revolutionary War. The politics of the day wanted to do away with punishments inherited from English legal practice. There were many ideas how to do this, varying from state to state and from North to South depending on the social and demographic change in the rapidly increasing population due to both immigration and longer life spans. The name 'penitentiary' evolved as the inmates were hopefully doing penitence for their life of crime, and some of the penitentiaries became so structurally large they earned the nick-name "The Big House."
Prior to construction of prisons in Oregon, many people convicted of crimes were either hanged or pardoned. The Oregon State Penitentiary, originally built in Portland in 1851 (now located in Salem) created the 'Oregon Boot', a heavy metal device attached to prisoner's legs to impede movement. In 1991, 140 years later, Oregon opened the Snake River Correctional Institution, a medium security prison near Ontario, Oregon, now the largest facility in the Oregon Department of Corrections system. It houses 2,366 medium security and 154 minimum security beds along with 510 beds in specialized units. Among the prison industries are a commercial call center, a metal shop manufacturing road signs, and a program manufacturing small modular structures. The mission of the institute is to promote public safety by holding offenders accountable for their actions and reducing the risk of future criminal behavior. The Institution is staffed by about 900 employees-one of whom is McDermitt Combined School Alumni, Justin Goff.
Justin was born on July 17, 1984 to Patrick and Kristin (Shepherd) Goff in Nampa, Idaho. Both Pat and Kristin graduated high school from New Meadows, Idaho and Justin remembers going to kindergarten through part of second grade there as well. He became a Vandal's' fan when he attended 3rd & 4th grade at West Park Elementary in Moscow, Idaho while his parents worked on their degrees at the University of Idaho. The next year Pat and Kristin both accepted teaching positions at McDermitt Combined School-she teaching 2nd grade and coaching the MHS girl's volleyball team while Pat taught computer science and coached boy's varsity basketball. Moving their family to Nevada, Justin, a fifth grader, and his younger siblings-Jesse of Horseshoe Bend; Sharsti who spent two years as a volleyball setter at Walla Walla and 1 year at NNU; and Desirae who is going to school at Lewis and Clark State College while coaching a club volleyball team in Moscow-started school in McDermitt
Justin enjoyed Ruth Alcorta for a teacher that year and he liked the variety of sports that Bob Pace challenged them with in PE, including badminton played on the volleyball net. He says that Nick Wilkinson was a great coach for their junior high basketball team, teaching them the fundamentals in preparation for high school basketball.
Darlene Albisu's English class was a favorite in high school and she advanced the kids with classes through GBC, saving Justin from introductory English in college. Justin loved sports, particularly football and pole vaulting; however, with his dad as his basketball coach it was exciting when he and his teammates brought home the State Basketball Championship his senior year, after two years as runner up.
Between his junior and senior year his dad was offered a position in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho and asked Justin if he would rather stay in McDermitt for his senior year or transfer, agreeing to pass up the position when Justin chose McDermitt. Justin remembers the long bus trips, learning to sleep any which way and recalls the headlight going out on their way home from the championship game. It was late when they got to McDermitt, but the town residents, who had packed the gym during the season, were still waiting outside of the Say When to greet them.
Graduating in 2002 Justin shared Valedictorian honors with fellow classmates/teammates Rusty Bengoa and Lowell Egan. Their fairytale year ended up with a senior trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico-financed primarily by hosting trap shoots at the Orovada shooting range.
Justin's family moved that summer to Horseshoe Bend but his dad left behind a great legacy for MHS-besides coaching a State Championship Basketball Team. There was no local internet in McDermitt for his computer class when he started, so Pat was the Captain for Justin and his class mates to launch the only high school run internet service and corporation that was known in the World at that time. Called M-HIP (McDermitt-Humboldt Internet Provider) it not only serviced the school with internet service but also some 300 area residents.
Totally involved, the students billed the customers, took service calls, gave speeches, and much more. They had different department heads and board meetings, keeping minutes and everything that most businesses would do. Justin remembers they flew to Las Vegas to give a speech to about 30 adults and how exciting it was. One of the funniest things was when Boise State University called MHS and said that McDermitt wasn't the only student run internet service in the World because they had one also. When told that this was a small high school they couldn't believe it!!!
Some awards won for M-HIP were the 1998-1999 AOL Rural Telecommunications Youth Development/Leadership award, and the 1999 Best School-To Career Best Practices Award. Pat was invited to give speeches about the Student Based Corporation in Carson City and Las Vegas, Nev.; Aspen, Colo.; Washington DC; St. Paul, Minn.; and Amsterdam, Holland.
The fall of 2002 Justin enrolled at Eastern Oregon University, but after a year wasn't sure what he wanted to major in so he went to work building log homes in the Horseshoe Bend area. On the side he coached middle school boys basketball for two years, adding the high school junior varsity team the third year. He also coached middle school track, and for one year had the middle school girl's volleyball team. He then went to work for the school district as a paraprofessional, working with an autistic child and a mentally disabled child as well as a 7th grader who was on probation. He was responsible for their daily activities and keeping the 7th grader out of trouble. He was also the assistant coach for the varsity track team.
When three other guys needed another roommate at the U of I, Justin transferred his credits and four years later graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Justice; another in Sociology; and a desire to work with juvenile delinquents.
He was married in 2009 to Hannah (Alkire) from Horseshoe Bend (his wife also has graduated from the U of I with a degree in General Studies and a minor in Psychology-all while raising two kids and taking online classes).
After a year working at
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the Orofino State Prison, Justin transferred to the Snake River Correctional Institution as a correctional officer. He and his family, that now includes their four year old daughter Malia, born on October 11, 2009 and Bradley, born August 27, 2012, make their home in Star, Idaho and Justin commutes to work in Ontario. While it is usually calm at work there are stressful times-the officers have to not only be a teacher and counselor they have to be prepared for any emergency. They are not given weapons to use other than handcuffs and pepper spray.
At any given time, Justin may be responsible for 80 inmates ranging from murders to rapists and child molesters with a simple job description "Make sure no one escapes!!!" He prefers to not know why prisoners are there so as to be able to treat them equally. The goal of the facility is to release inmates as productive members of society with hopes of eliminating a return to the prison system. Justin's goal is to be a counselor to juveniles or adults-helping classify the level of an inmate, and establishing access to privileges based on risk for violent behavior and good/bad behavior in general. After two years, Justin feels that his current job is a good stepping stone that allows him family time, and has good benefits.
Too young to think about what he wants to do when he is old enough to retire Justin says, "The way the economy is I will probably be at least 78 years old!" He was, however, bitten by the urge to travel when he went with the senior class to Puerto Vallarta so would like to travel more. He also loves being around family. With extended family around Horseshoe Bend, including many of his mom's eight siblings, he says, "It is a great place to take our kids trick-or-treating!!"
Justin would say to McDermitt kids, "Life has many ups and downs. It may not turn out exactly the way you planned. Sometimes you just have to step back and look at what you have and be thankful. Always keep working and setting goals-some that are easy to achieve with others that challenge you. Trying to learn something new every day isn't just a cliché-it is very true and a must in achieving your goals and becoming the best person you can be. Go DAWGS !!"[[In-content Ad]]
