Juvenile offenders get mentors

According to the New Mexico Conference of Churches, more than half of the youths released from the New Mexico Juvenile Detention System will return.

In an effort to reduce these numbers, UNM senior David Fischman founded the Second Chance for New Mexico Youth Collaborative, a mentorship program that connects UNM students with incarcerated youth. The program began last fall and operates in conjunction with Partners Envisioning Progress and Big Brothers Big Sisters. UNM students who participate in the program earn class credit.
Fischman said the mentors encourage their clients to go back to school and maintain jobs.

“Obviously they’ve made some bad mistakes, but I don’t think that we should lock them up and throw away the key,” Fischman said. “I don’t think the correction system alone has any chance of rehabilitating these kids. I think it takes positive one-to-one relationships to really do that.”

Fischman said mentors can provide a level of support that most troubled youths have never experienced. Fischman said many of the young people in the program come from the same areas of Albuquerque.

“A lot of them are coming from the same ZIP codes that have high rates of violent crime, high poverty levels,” he said. “Most of the girls have been victims of sexual abuse, and a lot of the kids have had problems with drug abuse. I think that a lot of these kids just don’t have as good of a chance at things as what most of us take for granted.”

Second Chance mentor Andrew Limon has been working with his client since October. He said that his first encounter with him was a moment he will never forget.

“You walk through the barbed-wire fence and the big sliding doors,” Limon said. “I mean, you’re going into a place where they want to protect people. The thing that really stands out, and it will stand out forever, was when we met, he said ‘Just be there for me.’ I knew then that I didn’t have to worry about him trying to use me.”

Limon said he meets with his client once a week and spends this time joking around and using positive reinforcement. Limon recently turned 21, and said his age helps him connect with his client.

“You still sort of have to be a kid at heart to relate to them,” he said.

Mentor Antonia Romero said she grew up in a bad neighborhood, which has made her relationships with her clients very intimate.

“I’ve had people who I was friends with when I was a little kid; I see them now and they’re all now on drugs,” Romero said. “I felt bad that I wasn’t there for them and that now I could be there for someone else — before they end up with a life like that.”

Romero said Second Chance has been a positive factor in both her and her client’s lives.

“My first year in college, things kind of revolved around myself, in my own little world,” she said. “It’s kind of nice to get out of my little bubble and help someone else. It’s good to get outside yourself and to see things from a different perspective.”