Program aims to put young offenders back on right path

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.

Twenty-two teenage boys sat quietly on gymnasium bleachers earlier this month as Nevada Army Guard Lt. Todd Hine gave them two pieces of advice for surviving a three-day boot camp for juvenile offenders.

"There are two keys -- don't take it personal and trust the process," Hine told the boys, who ranged from ages 12 to 16. "What you've done has set you on a course of action that we need to correct.

"Remember why you are here."

Minutes later remembering anything, let alone Hine's advice, would prove challenging as the boys were hustled onto the gym floor to endure an hour of push-ups, leg lifts and running while Army Guard soldiers bellowed orders inches from their faces.

Every time one of the teens failed to quickly follow an order or did something wrong, a soldier would descend on him.

Responding to one teen who called him sir instead of sergeant, Sgt. Anthony Mendoza leaned down and shouted, "Don't call me sir! You might as well kick me ... and call me Sally!"

Later another soldier spotted a teen who had stopped doing push-ups and was lying face-down on the gym floor.

"Do you want me to bring you a pillow?" the soldier yelled. "Then get off the ground and stop pretending you're asleep!"

David, 16, strained and sweated with the other teens who had committed misdemeanor crimes, some of whom broke down and cried.

"I knew this was going to involve discipline, but I didn't think it would be like this," he said. "I came here to change my life. I guess this is what I have to do."

David and all but one of the boys made it through the hour, and continued on with Project SOAR, a joint effort between the Nevada Army Guard and Clark County Juvenile Justice Services designed to get low-level teen offenders out of trouble without using the court system.

The diversionary program -- SOAR stands for Seeking Opportunity, Accepting Responsibility -- began last year and has had five camps for teens who have committed offenses such as truancy, drug possession, battery, theft and curfew violations.

"By the time these kids get to us they don't trust anyone and they are not thinking about their future," Clark County Probation Supervisor Tom Maroney said. "A lot of these kids are failing in school and getting into trouble, and if we don't divert them they just become part of the system.

"We start seeing them over and over again."

The county's juvenile justice system is already taxed, with 24,688 referrals in 2003 for 15,721 teenagers.

Since Project SOAR's first camp in January 2003, about 100 teens, boys and girls, have been through the program and graduated, and those that complete the program have about a 22 percent recidivism rate.

Maroney said that the program is still new and that the county continues to evaluate it. The program is funded through federal grants through 2004 and costs about $270 per juvenile.

"It's much more cost-effective to divert them at the front-end rather than later, when they are in the system and need to be detained," Maroney said. "It's a difference between spending hundreds of dollars per kid and thousands of dollars per kid."

The three-day boot camp starts in a county-run gymnasium behind the Clark County Family Court near Bonanza and Pecos roads. Following their introduction to the program and the vigorous exercise, the teens are divided into smaller groups of seven or eight, with one soldier and one probation officer assigned to each group.

The teens are then taught to move in a military formation and to salute before participating in team-building exercises with Deputy Probation Officer Deborah Dow.

The first smiles of the day from the teens came during an exercise designed to teach teamwork that forces them to pass hula hoops from person to person while holding hands in a circle.

"It's really preventive medicine that we're doing," Dow said. "We want them to learn teamwork and leadership skills.

"These aren't criminals, they are just kids that got caught doing something they they shouldn't have been doing, and we need to steer them in the right direction."

The camp continues with two days at Camp Lee Canyon, where the teens receive drug, alcohol and anger management counseling. They also must complete an eight-mile hike and an obstacle course.

After the camp the teens must report for four follow-up meetings over the next 60 days, where they are to receive more counseling.

Those who complete the program have their charges dropped and do not have to go back before a judge, or if they have already been adjudicated the teens will not have to complete the community service or other counseling required in their sentence.

Hine estimates that five teens have quit the program, including one who called his mother the first day to come and get him.

"At the start of the camp they really don't like us, but by the end they respect us, and they're looking to shake our hands," Hine said. "They have to earn it and they do."

The graduates are given dog tags to commemorate their participation in the program.

Trevor, 13, was the smallest teen at the camp, weighing no more than 80 pounds and standing about 4 feet tall.

Trevor, who was a part of Sgt. Mendoza's unit, known as the "Eagles," said he didn't think he was going to make it through the first hour of exercise and orders.

"It was a lot of running and a lot of pressure, but it felt good to know I didn't quit," Trevor said. "There's consequences when you do things, but our motto is 'Eagles never quit.' "