A.J. Wolf

A.J. Wolf of Crimebusters will bring his trailer to the site to demonstrate what a life of crime will lead a person to.

Below, Wolf fastens leg irons on 13-year-old David Spence as Crimebusters and Ritter's Frozen Custard's "Get the Scoop on Crime" night on Oct. 31.
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"You think of the dirtiest things in the world and you will see it in a cell block," said Wolf.

But it was after a 12-year-old boy was incarcerated in the prison where Wolf worked for shooting one of his fellow students that Wolf realized that he needed to do something to try to help.

"You know you can kind of handle it when it is a 40-year-old," said Wolf."But a 12-year-old, that is a baby.

"They don't know what they are getting into at all.They can't know."

Wolf said he decided then that if he ever got the chance, he would dedicate his life to making sure teens know the consequences of their actions.

After he moved to Tennessee, Wolf formed Crimebusters a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to educating youths on the rigors of prison life.

"I had an idea," said Wolf."I had some leg irons and a couple of jumpsuits and I thought, ‘let's show kids what it is really like.'"

Using schematics from actual prisons and paying for it mostly out of his own pocket, Wolf designed and built "Reality Check," a mobile scale model of a prison, in order to show kids the living conditions in prisons.

"Kids started asking, ‘Mr.Wolf, how big is 7-foot by 12-foot or 11-foot by 8-foot?'," said Wolf."That's why I started building those cells.I figured they got to see this for themselves."

Wolf's "Reality Check" features several different types of cells, including a single person cell, a double person cell, a medical cell for handicapped inmates, a cell equipped with four point restraints for drug addicts, a visitation room and the solitary confinement cell known as "the hole."

He said he tried to pick materials to build the model prison "as close to the real thing as possible," including using old broken toilets and sinks donated from actual prisons.

Crimebusters uses the model prison to make presentations to area schools and churches for a small fee in order to educate kids on what is really meant by the expression "hard time."

Wolf, who has been employed as a service technician for Brinks Armored Trucks for the past eight years, said his eventual goal is to be able do Crimebusters presentations full-time.

"My goal is to get it through the state of Tennessee," said Wolf.

For more information about the Crimebusters program, call A.J. Wolf at 826-7119 or e-mail ajwolfforkids@yahoo.com.

HENDERSONVILLE - As a prison guard in Pennsylvania, A.J. Wolf witnessed the horrors and tragedy of prison life firsthand.

"You think of the dirtiest things in the world, and you will see it in a cell block," Wolf said.

But it was after a 12-year-old boy was incarcerated in the prison where Wolf worked for shooting one of his fellow students that Wolf realized he needed to do something to try to help.

"You know, you can kind of handle it when it is a 40-year-old," said Wolf, who now lives in Hendersonville.
...
"I had an idea," Wolf said."I had some leg irons and a couple of jumpsuits, and I thought, 'Let's show kids what it is really like.' "

Using schematics from real prisons and paying for it mostly out of his own pocket, Wolf designed and built "Reality Check," a mobile scale model of a prison, to show kids the living conditions in prisons.

"Kids started asking, 'Mr.Wolf, how big is 7 foot by 12 foot or 11 foot by 8 foot?' " Wolf said."That's why I started building those cells.I figured they got to see this for themselves."

Wolf's "Reality Check" features many different types of cells, including a single-person cell, a double-person cell, a medical cell for inmates with disabilities, a cell equipped with four-point restraints for drug addicts, a visitation room and the solitary confinement cell known as "the hole."

He said he tried to pick materials to build the model prison "as close to the real thing as possible," including using old broken toilets and sinks donated from actual prisons.

Crimebusters uses the model prison to make presentations to area schools and churches for a small fee to educate kids about what is really meant by the expression "hard time."

Wolf, who has been employed as a service technician for Brinks Armored Trucks for the past eight years, said his goal is to be able to do Crimebusters presentations full time.

"My goal is to get it through the state of Tennessee," Wolf said.