Program aims to keep teens from crime

Diana Sahagun

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2000 | 10:13 a.m.

Michelle Henderson, 41, said she began a life of crime at age 8.

She said it began with dealing drugs and went on to include forgery and check fraud to cover her $8,000-a-month drug habit.

Her bad choices landed her in jail for half of her life.

Henderson is serving what she promises to be her last stint at incarceration at the North Las Vegas Detention Center, as a federal prisoner on a four-year sentence for writing counterfeit checks.

With chains binding her feet, Henderson spoke child-like to a roomful of teens Tuesday for a Life of Crime program created by North Las Vegas Municipal Judge Warren VanLandschoot. This is an in-your-face program designed to keep teens away from crime.

The hard-hitting talk from Henderson and four other federal inmates who cried as they spoke about their loneliness in jail turned a room of more than 100 teens dead quiet.

To VanLandschoot, even if only one teen chooses another path as a result of the program, it should be considered a success.

As a longtime homicide detective for the North Las Vegas Police Department before becoming a judge, VanLandschoot said he has grown weary of seeing teens wrapped up in drugs and crime.

He formed the program, which has been held twice so far, and gained help from the North Las Vegas Police Department, the North Las Vegas Detention Center, the U.S. marshal's service and Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl, and picked up Nevada Power Co. as a sponsor.

Critics charge that such programs, like Scared Straight and DARE, do little to curb juvenile crime and only offer a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

But VanLandschoot said he believes strongly in the program and expects it to explode. The free program will be offered once a month on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Eventually, he hopes to offer the program throughout the entire Las Vegas Valley.

"I feel so strongly that if I can reach kids and keep them out of my courtroom, then it is well worth it," said VanLandschoot, who trades courtroom robes for a baseball cap as an administrator for District 4 Little League Baseball.

No one tried to reach Pedro Roman-Carillo, 29, who at 9 years old started smoking pot to fit in with his friends. He became a gang member and has been tossed in and out of jail for years. He is being jailed pending deportation next week.

"When someone offers to get into a gang, you're going to end up where I am right now," he said. "It's not worth it. Every day, someone tells you when to go to bed, when to get up, when to eat."

Carillo's jail roommate, 28-year-old Gustavo Morales, became a gang member as a teen in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles. His $400-a-week cocaine habit landed him in jail on robbery charges. He is facing more than 16 years in prison.

"Everyone has a choice," he said. "It's up to you to either make a good one or a bad one."

For the most part, the teens didn't seem to be surprised while watching a video showing actual footage of drug-dealing on the streets of North Las Vegas.

They asked about other what-if scenarios, such as, "What happens if an officer is caught doing drugs? What if the police can't catch you? What if someone plants drugs in your backpack at school?"

They also watched gritty footage of the SWAT team serving search warrants in the middle of the night, breaking down doors and dragging people from their homes.

"This is what can happen if you choose to get into crime -- I'm going to come and visit you," said SWAT officer Frank De Martino. "No matter where you are, you could be sleeping, I'm going to come get you."

After the video, the teens were stunned as the SWAT team, in a staged scenario, burst through the doors of the courthouse, pounding on their shields with large, wooden sticks. They secured two inmates who had begun to fight.

Most of the teens looked puzzled at what they had seen, unsure if it was real.

Dorothy Childs, who works at the North Las Vegas Housing Authority, brought 15 teens from the housing complex, and said the program is a benefit for at-risk teens who need a dose of reality.

"I feel they really need something to scare them straight," she said. "It's about life, the choices you make."

Twelve-year-old Juannel McCraney said it was sad to hear the inmates talk about no one writing them letters in jail, and of not getting visitors.

"I wonder if we could send them some presents," she said.