Program aims to stop youths' lives of crime

In the eye-for-an-eye world of the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, kids who get caught stealing bicycles have to buy new ones.

It’s all part of the learning process in the DA’s diversion program, a highly lauded effort that gives youthful offenders who have committed petty crimes a second chance by keeping them out of the court system and putting them into an intensive, year-long program designed to teach them new values and skills.

“Sometimes kids make stupid choices,” says Jerry O’Hare, who oversees the program and is so enthusiastic about it that he seems like an overgrown kid himself.

Among other things, the program emphasizes restitution, which helps juvenile offenders understand how their crimes impact other people. Sometimes the kids pay money into the program, sometimes they buy actual gifts.

The items are then donated to needy families who don’t have the funds to buy big-ticket items, such as bicycles. “We’ve grown this thing into a big giveaway,” says O’Hare.

Smelling of fresh rubber, with helmets and water bottles dangling from the handle bars, the shiny bikes are already rolling into the storage room in the DA’s Office. This year, they’ll be given away to several large families in a Christmas celebration scheduled for Dec. 11.

About 850 kids go through the program each year. Eighty-five percent of them are never heard from again.

“If you’re a first-time offender, we meet you at the courthouse door,” District Attorney Dan May explained in a recent presentation to the El Paso County Board of Commissioners. “We offer to dismiss the charges on the spot if you go into our diversion program.”

Each youthful offender has his or her own custom-tailored program that is developed with the input of parents, teachers, ministers, social workers and counselors. In addition to restitution, offenders may be required to volunteer in the communities where they committed their crimes, maintain certain grades in school, attend counseling sessions, or even meet with their victims.

In the course of the year-long program, some of the juvenile offenders have discovered untapped gifts, such as a talent for painting or photography, or a knack for working with dogs or horses. After they complete the program, their criminal record is wiped clean so it won’t impact their ability to get jobs or scholarships or join the military.

Costing about $350,000 annually, the program employs six to seven people. Despite the high success rate, it’s been struggling to make ends meet. It’s the only program in the DA’s Office that is not mandated by state law and received no money in 2009 from the cash-strapped county.

But the DA’s Office has managed to keep the program afloat with the help of emergency funds from the state. It’s also established a nonprofit and is seeking donations and grants. The El Pomar Foundation gave the program $10,000 and May contributed about $450 in unspent campaign funds.

Kids from across the community have gone through the program. “We’ve had every race, every social group, the poor and the rich, the successful and unsuccessful,” May said. “It’s a great aid to this community.”

—

Call the writer at 476-4825.