Utah doctor helping teens in juvenile detention see clearly


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SALT LAKE CITY — The future may be unclear for the teens in juvenile detention, but their vision soon will be.

Dr. Roger Harrie, an ophthalmologist with the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, is making sure of it. Every other Sunday, makes a house call to the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center.

"He's changing young lives because he's providing a much-needed service. Some of these kids have never had glasses, so he's coming in (and) devoting his own time and resources," said Jackie Chamberlain, spokeswoman for the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services.

It began as volunteer work with his church group, but Harrie soon saw the needs was larger than he'd imagined. "It's amazing how bad their eyes are," he said.

In his published study, Harrie found incarcerated adolescents have more eye problems than most. They require corrective lenses almost twice as much as teens in the public school system, he said.

Harrie believes there's a causal relationship. "When you can't see in school, you don't do very well. You get negative reinforcement about the school," he said.

Other studies support this premise. Harrie said failure in school can sometimes lead to truancy and criminal behavior, especially for youth without a strong support system at home.

"A lot of these kids just aren't in the school system. They're in and out of school, they're homeless, transient, so they never really get screened in school," Harrie said.

A thank-you letter Dr. Roger Harrie, an ophthalmologist with the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, received from a teenager he helped in one of his visits the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center. (Photo: KSL TV)
A thank-you letter Dr. Roger Harrie, an ophthalmologist with the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, received from a teenager he helped in one of his visits the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center. (Photo: KSL TV)

Their vision problems are often a simple fix: "Mostly nearsightedness, which means they can see close up, but they can't see far away," the doctor said.

Harrie doesn't charge for the eye exam or the glasses.

"They think the world is that: they think the world is supposed to be blurry. So when you give them glasses to see, I kind of warn them, 'When you put these on, it's going to be different.' And they kind of look around and feel strange," he said.

Harrie hopes he's on the front lines of change for these teens. "I have this little bag of glasses I pull with me and I actually fit them on the spot," he said.

In the seven years since the vision screening program began, Harrie has given away over 3,000 pairs of glasses. He believes it's much more than their vision he's helping put into focus.

"I say, 'Look, if you go to school, finish high school, go beyond that, your chance of a better job is higher,'" he said.

Harrie has received letters from some of the teens he's helped, which is all the thanks he needs. He is working on a follow-up study to see if there's a correlation between the severity of the crime and the intensity of the vision problem.

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Heather Simonsen
Heather Simonsen is a five-time Emmy Award-winning enterprise reporter for KSL-TV. Her expertise is in health and medicine, drug addiction, science and research, family, human interest and social issues. She is the host and producer of KSL-TV’s Positively 50+ initiative.

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