Offenders building new ethic

SANDPOINT – The roof trusses at Bonner County’s Probation Services stymied juvenile offender John Huckabee.

Huckabee, a chronic probation violator finally sentenced to 180 days in detention, had to figure out how to secure the trusses in the expansion he’s helping to build. But the numbers confused the 17-year-old.

“Every 16 inches there’s a stud and every 2 feet a rafter,” Huckabee said, rolling his eyes. “It drove me crazy.”

At one time, such an experience might have motivated Huckabee, who was originally charged with eluding and evading police, to toss his tools and walk off the job. Now, he knows construction manager Mike Bishop wants him to succeed. Huckabee repays Bishop’s support with effort and patience, practices for which he’s not known.

“They’re doing well,” Bishop said recently about Huckabee and his 16-year-old co-worker. “They’ve learned to check things really close. Neither one has made the same mistake twice.”

Such words are music to Debbie Stallcup, director of Probation Services and the brains behind its young offender construction program.

“One kid was going to be committed until this program,” she said. “He totally came out of his shell. One of the adult workers wrote a letter to get the court to let him stay on the job.”

Since 1989, more than 100 juvenile offenders have helped Stallcup’s department expand from a simple ranch-style house into a complex that includes offices, a conference room, kitchen and a wood workshop. The kids in the program have committed everything from breaking windows to aggravated assault. Violent and nonviolent offenders are permitted to work in the construction program, if Stallcup and her staff believe they’re ready.

“Probation is one to three years. Maybe a kid’s been in for three years and is ready for a job,” she said. “We don’t look at the crime.”

Juvenile Probation in Bonner doesn’t track offenders after they serve their time, she said. But Stallcup estimates 20 percent of the kids in the construction program offend again and stay in the system. She said she knows at least one boy who left detention to take a job in construction. But preparing kids for future construction jobs isn’t the point of the building program.

“We’re teaching a work ethic,” Stallcup said. “They have to do resumes and go through a job interview. We’re giving them skills to get jobs.”

The need for more room and little available money prompted Stallcup in 1989 to brainstorm with a friend in construction. When Stallcup mentioned the idea of kids in detention learning building skills, Brent Baker, who owns Baker Construction in Sandpoint, wanted to help.

Stallcup won a work-to-learn grant to add 200 square feet to the house. She offered the work to juvenile offenders as community service, which is mandatory for every offender. Baker’s crew taught the kids basic carpentry skills.

By 1999, Probation Services had outgrown its space again. Stallcup won another grant for a 1,500-square-foot addition. Again, Baker wanted to help. After the job ended, his company hired one of the young workers.

Space grew tight again this year, so Stallcup headed back to Baker. This time the grant she won was smaller. Even with money from the state cigarette tax, she needed more community generosity. Sandpoint architect Bill Klein offered to design an addition at no cost.

“It’s a worthwhile cause,” Klein said. “I try to keep one project like that around.”

He kept the plans simple so kids could learn without frustration. The project included four offices, a conference room, kitchen and expanded workshop. The workshop where kids build wooden planter boxes, toy boxes and more is the size of a bedroom and is crowded with stacks of their accomplishments.

Baker hired Bishop to work with the kids. Bishop worked with troubled kids at Rocky Mountain Academy until CEDU Educational Services declared bankruptcy this spring and closed its schools.

“It takes the right person to manage kids,” said Wayne Meaux, the project manager. “They (kids) don’t want to work at the start. They come with no experience.”

Bishop is no preschool teacher. He knows carpentry and kids. He teaches basic skills then tells his small crew to figure out how to complete a task. Huckabee said he figured out most jobs but finally asked Bishop for help with the trusses.

Subcontractors are as eager to help the kids as Baker. Electricians and plumbers take the time to explain their work and answer the kids’ questions, Meaux said.

“We asked all the subcontractors to work with them if they could,” he said. “They were all OK that the kids are juvenile offenders. They had no problems.”

Baker outfits its young workers with a tool belt and hammer, which is theirs to keep if they finish the job. The kids aren’t allowed to use power tools or climb on roofs. Job Service is paying Huckabee and his co-worker minimum wage to participate. The money will go toward the restitution they owe, Stallcup said.

The change in Huckabee since he began in the program relieves the detention staff. Huckabee violated probation enough that the system was giving up on him, Stallcup said. He works eight hours a day now and is working on his GED, a document that verifies he knows enough to graduate from high school. He talks about working in construction after he completes detention.

“After working all day, he’s the first to offer to mow or do chores,” said Jim Martin, detention manager. “He’s tired at the end of the day, but up early, dressed and ready by 7:30 with no prodding. The work ethic has really changed.”