CHRISTIANSBURG - It was seeing the prisoners face to face that cemented Brad Clark's plan for a career in law enforcement. He didn't expect to meet inmates of Bland County Correctional Facility. He thought it might be like his visit to Alcatraz, when he heard recordings from the past.

The Bland visit was part of a field trip with his Christiansburg High School history class this past school year. Clark thought he wanted to be a correctional officer, but the visit changed his mind. He doesn't want to just guard prisoners. He wants to help them plan for life on the outside. "Hearing their stories, how they wished they could take everything back - now I want to be a federal probation officer. I want to be with the prisoners," he said.

Clark received the annual $1,000 Christiansburg Police Department Memorial Scholarship when he graduated in June. Last week he began his freshman year at Radford University, majoring in criminal justice.

"It's every little boy's dream to be the police officer hero," he said.

Clark was just a kid when Christiansburg Officer Terry Griffith was killed Sept. 18, 1994, and he doesn't remember it. Chief Gary Brumfield said the department created the scholarship program in memory of Griffith that same year.

"We didn't want to forget him," Brumfield said. "It's not just for one [officer]. Now, unfortunately, we have two." Officer Scott Hylton was killed May 9, 2003. Clark does remember that.

The danger aspect doesn't deter Clark. Hylton, he said, was, "doing what he was supposed to do."

Clark has a cousin who is a police officer in Rich Creek, but otherwise had no law enforcement influence growing up. He didn't know any local police officers, nor did he ever tour the Christiansburg department.

He did, however, read several books about prisons and the people incarcerated in them. And while he doesn't remember the books' titles, he does remember that he was both interested and turned off by prison life.

In December 2002, Clark was in San Francisco with the Virginia Tech football team for a bowl game. His mother, Diana, is head coach Frank Beamer's secretary. A tour of Alcatraz was arranged, and Clark saw Al Capone's cell and listened to inmates' stories on headphones during the walking tour. Clark's interest was piqued even more, but he still had yet to talk to a prisoner face to face.

The Bland trip changed that.

"You walk through the gates and see the inmates in the windows, staring at you. You know they're talking about you." He was only 17 years oldat the time, so he didn't get to see inside cells. Instead, a small group of inmates sat in a lounge area to talk with the students. They told the teenagers how they ended up behind bars.

"One had been drinking, and drove and hit and killed someone. One guy stabbed another guy because of drinking. A lot of their stories involved alcohol and making wrong decisions," he said.

Drinking is not for Clark, he said. Neither are drugs, as he's known fellow students who were arrested on drug charges.

"I don't want to go through that," he said. "Hearing the inmates' stories made me want to help them turn things around."

Clark doesn't want to just be an officer to them, he wants to be a friend, too.

"I don't see them as the scum of the earth. What they need is someone to care about them. That's what I'll be there for.""It's every little boy's dream to be the police officer hero."

Brad Clark

Scholarship recipient