 Ben Rogers  Drawing of the first juvenile center in 1960 |
History>>> When the late Ben Rogers heard a news report in 1959 about two young boys who hanged themselves while incarcerated with adult inmates in the Jefferson County Jail, he realized the need for a separate facility for housing young people. The next year, along with his brothers, Ben contributed $25,000 to purchase a vacant building and then helped transform it into a juvenile facility with the Beaumont Downtown Optimist Club, of which he was a member. In appreciation, the county named it the Minnie Rogers Juvenile Home, in memory of the Rogers’ mother, who had died the previous year. Just weeks after Ben’s death in 1994, his daughter, Regina, continued the Christmas visits she and her father had made to the facility annually over the years and to honor his commitment to young people in need of a chance to succeed. On that first Christmas visit without him, she was overwhelmed with the looks of hopelessness and despair on the faces of the children she met. Compelled to develop a program that would focus on rehabilitation and empower detainees to make wiser choices - during incarceration, while on probation, and beyond - she helped found IEA in 1997 and has invested significantly in its development with both personal resources and her commitment of time. |
