In a square, nondescript room within the Montgomery County Detention Center, Jermaine Boyd and Cynthia Brunner are in the middle of an intense argument.
For the moment, they're a husband and wife in a park, tussling over why she has overdrawn the couple's bank account.
Boyd wants to know why she's wiped out the funds.
"To buy new clothes," she says.
"What do you need new clothes for?" he says.
"So I can look good for you," she says.
And on it goes, until the creator of the scenario, Chuck Paris, yells "Cut!"
Boyd, 17, is a junior at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg. Brunner, 32, is a county inmate serving 18 months for possession of illegal drugs. Both are participating in Positive I.D., a program at the Rockville jail that allows students and inmates to use role-playing to learn how to better handle strife.
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The program, which began at the jail about a year ago, has become so popular that it usually has a 50-inmate waiting list.
"Everybody in the jail wants to take it," said Arthur Kelly, who is serving 13 months on a forgery conviction. "It just helps people see conflict in a whole different light."
Both inmates and students say the classes have had an enormous impact on their lives.
Kelly, for instance, said the program has helped him deal better with conflicts in jail.
"Before, if someone said something to me, I'd stick my chest out; I'd want to prove my manhood," Kelly said. "Now I realize I don't have to respond physically."
Boyd said the program has taught him that in arguments, he needs "to think things through all the way. . . . And make your point. Don't beat around the bush."
Positive I.D. was created in 1991 by Paris, a former Prince George's County police officer who now heads the school security team at Watkins Mill. Paris, who organized the program in the Prince George's jail for 18 months before coming to Montgomery, said teaching conflict resolution is just one of his goals.
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"Inmates feel like they're forgotten. They feel like all they can do is bide their time," Paris said. "We try to help them realize that somebody cares about them, so they can care about themselves."
He also wanted a vehicle to help students learn to avoid the mistakes that the inmates made, a point not lost on the teenagers who participate in the program.
"They try to teach you and show you why you wouldn't want to end up in their shoes," Boyd said.
The program was honored by County Executive Neal Potter and the Department of Corrections. Gregory Wims, president of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, visited the program two weeks ago.
Wims said he was "very impressed. Teaching {the inmates} how to deal with conflict in a positive way is, I think, the key to stopping the cycle of violence."
This year, the program is being offered in six-week sessions, with a three-hour meeting each week.
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At the beginning of each meeting, the inmates take notes as Paris discusses various aspects of confrontation, such as emotional intensity or body language. Then, using fictional scenarios, the inmates and students act out scenes as Paris directs and films the conflicts. In the most recent class, Boyd was joined by Karen Sisson, Shirley Burgos, Lorenzo Clark and Lauren Zaugg, all fellow Watkins Mill students.
At various times during the role-playing, Paris solicits comments from audience members as they analyze the confrontations. The class then watches the conflicts on tape, going over them again.
Both students and inmates say Paris is the program's strength and inspiration.
"He lets you know there's quality in all of us, something of value," said Renee Smith, who is serving 18 months in the jail for possession of illegal drugs. "Some people feel like we aren't worth anything, but he knows we have coherent and intelligent views on things."
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Program participants say that the experience has helped them wipe out stereotypes of people they'd known only through myth or media.
"When I started out, I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect," said Sisson, a junior at Watkins Mill. "But you realize that they're good people. They've just made some bad choices."
"These kids are extremely intelligent, very impressive," Kelly said. "It makes me feel good to know that kids aren't all like what you read about in the paper."
