'You don’t need to lock kids up’: Harrisburg-based program provides alternatives to prison

More than a decade ago, Michael Cordero had a habitual marijuana addiction that led him down a road to incarceration.

He was court-ordered to participate in a community-based alternative out-of-home care program operated by Harrisburg-based Youth Advocate Program, LLC. The now 28-year-old runs his own business where he installs tinted windows on yachts in Miami, Florida.

Cordero is just one example of thousands of youth who have turned their lives around under the program, CEO Jeff Fleischer said recently.

"You don’t need to lock kids up,” Fleischer said. "We’ve been advocating that for years. People are starting to agree that prisons don’t work.”

The organization, known as YAP, offers youth mentors, counseling, a 24/7 crisis intervention line, and opportunities to pursue their passions by connecting them with others in the community. There is also a component designed to help redefine behavior.

The model not only helps to improve one’s life, but it also saves taxpayers money, Fleischer said.

The average cost in Pennsylvania to incarcerate one youth in a detention center is estimated between $100,000 to $150,000 a year, Fleischer said. In comparison, YAP costs anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000 per youth.

The approaches are vastly different in that the prison option isolates youth "from school, church, and peers,” he explained. While serving time, the youth could be abused or subjected to violence, he continued, adding: “You just spent that money and the kid comes home with very little aftercare. When they come out, they’re still pretty angry and more traumatized.”

YAP will be celebrating its 45th anniversary in October, Fleischer said. By the end of 2020, the organization’s programs are expected to be in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

The evidence-based program’s results have drawn the attention of The National Institute of Justice, which recently noted the program as a "promising” resource to help lower rates of recidivism.

Also, a recently released multiyear study conducted by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab revealed that the "Choose to Change” program showed its influence reduced violent-crime arrests by almost 50 percent and increased academic engagement in participating youth. The results are preliminary.

The “Choose to Change” program is a collaboration between YAP and the Children’s Home & Aid in Chicago, where gun violence has been a perpetual problem affecting city youth.

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YAP looks at the whole person and works with them, Fleischer said. Many of the youth they serve have been through the foster care system, have experienced intense levels of trauma or have a learning or mental disability, he explained.

“We have a no refuse in-take policy,” Fleischer said. “Even if a severe behavior is presented, we will not say no.”

A plan of action is developed between YAP and the youth, which includes family input if the family is available. If the immediate family is unavailable, then YAP looks for the next closest family member to support the positive changes the organization is working on for the youth.

There are four questions presented to each individual:

What do you need?

How can we help you?

How can we work together as equal partners in the planning process?

And, once things get settled, how can we help you to give back to our community?

Cordero admitted that he didn’t take the program seriously when he first entered it. He said he wanted to continue to dwell in his thoughts of feeling unworthy. That was until a life-defining moment happened.

When he was serving time at Bowling Brook Preparatory School, a facility for juvenile offenders in Keymar, Maryland, Cordero said he was incarcerated when a boy his age died. Staff members were accused of restraining a teenage boy, face down, for hours.

"For some reason, he died,” Cordero said.

Shortly after that incident, Bowling Brook offered some juveniles the option to return home. Cordero was lucky enough to make that list, he said. So, he said he CHOSE to return home to Lebanon and to accept another chance to make something of his life by working with YAP.

"I remember thinking, it’s time for me to make a change,” he said.

He had worked to receive his GED and studied carpentry. He credits a large part of his success to his youth advocate Ed Harmon, who now runs programs for YAP out of Lebanon County.

"Ed was helping me to keep my head in the game,” he said.

At the heart of YAP’s mission is building trust, Harmon said.

"I had to work to earn it,” Harmon continued. "We work with kids who have different backgrounds and experienced different traumas. When I started working with Mikey, we worked on real goals: stay in school, pass drug tests, go to the gym, find a job.”

No matter how often his "kids” pushed boundaries, he said he would take a big-picture approach. He said he’d stay focused on results, which was to encourage breaking the criminal activity pattern.

"I’m very proud of Mikey,” he said. "When he came home from Bowling Brook after seeing the young person die, he knew then that this is no joke. That could have very easily been him.”

Harmon and Cordero have known each other for 10 years.

"Our relationship went from apprehensive to asking for advice to hey, look what I’m doing now,” he said. "It went from me being his mentor to him becoming like my little brother.”

Cordero said he resolves never to go back to his former lifestyle. But, if given the opportunity to talk to his younger self, Cordero said he would say to "pay more attention.”

"It’s not expensive to pay attention but it pays the best interest,” Cordero said. "Change before you have to change -- before life actually applies the pressure that you can’t avoid and it forces you to make an uncontrolled change.”

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