Staff sees differencec WEC makes

Two young people with the same background -- the same education, the same type of upbringing, the same attitude -- have committed the same crime. One is sentenced to prison. The other is sentenced to the McCook Work Ethic Camp.

Will their lives take different directions?

The Gazette asked that question of seven employees at the McCook Work Ethic Camp who have had experience in a variety of counseling and correctional settings. Each of them shared their stories, their experiences and their opinions.

Probation Case Manager Stan Ahlin

Stan Ahlin began his career at the Regional Center State Hospital in Hastings at the age of 18. He was employed as a psychology technician and later an alcohol case manager. He then went to work as a corrections officer for the Nebraska Department of Corrections.

In July 1996, Ahlin began working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons where he served as a corrections office and case manager at Leavenworth Federal Prison, and at facilities in Georgia and Texas.

In 1988, he was promoted to the bureau's central office in Washington, D.C. There he worked with architects and staff in developing 15 new minimum security facilities and as camp administrator at a facility in Marion, Ill.

After working in the federal prison system for 20 years, Ahlin returned to Nebraska and worked as a counselor at a juvenile detention center and was a substitute teacher.

He worked at the Dawson County Jail before joining the State of Nebraska Probation Department.

That experience makes Ahlin a qualified observer of the differences between a normal corrections facility and the innovative facility in McCook.

"People have hope and opportunity here," Ahlin said. "There it's lock 'em up and count 'em."

"It's like the old cliche about the horse and water. At least here we're giving them the opportunity to take that drink."

While inmates in a prison setting are given the same opportunities as offenders at WEC, there is a difference. In a prison setting, most of the programs required by WEC are volunteer.

"(WEC offenders) are childlike. There's a difference in the age and experience between them and prison inmates," Ahlin said. "I've seen a lot of opportunities for people, but this is probably the most positive and proactive program I've ever seen."

The program isn't a cure-all, but "we can get them started in the right direction. It takes the edges off a young person who has spent his life being dysfunctional," Ahlins said.

"There's a lot more opportunities for people here than for a guy that stands around in the courtyard all day and goes into lock-up every night."

Cpl. Carolyn Williamson

Carolyn Williamson began working in corrections in 1999, when she took a job at the Adams County Sheriff's Department in Colorado. She left that position in 2000 and joined the staff at the Work Ethic Camp in 2001.

Williamson said, while at times she misses the fast pace at the sheriff's office, her position at WEC is more fulfilling, allowing her to help more people.

"Here, I feel like I'm helping someone, not warehousing them like in a zoo," she said.

The attitude of the people arriving at the McCook facility depends a lot on the individual and where his life has taken him, she said. Unlike those facing long-term incarceration, offenders sentenced to WEC tend to have a more positive attitude. "They don't have an end-of-the-road attitude."

Often the success of the program depends on the offenders background. If they have a lot to lose -- such as a supportive family -- they seem to put in more effort. And after spending a few weeks at the facility, "you begin to see their true colors."

Williamson said that upbringing appears to have a lot to do with the attitude of the offenders. If the offender is raised in a good family atmosphere, "it's not hard to bring them back." But if a person is raised in a dysfunctional family, where the young person is not only not chastised for bad behavior, but encouraged in it, it's difficult to know how to deal with them. "It's a real challenge," Williamson said.

Program Manager Troy Hoppes

Before coming to the McCook Work Ethic Camp, Troy Hoppes worked as a probation officer in Hastings.

He then moved to Youth Services International in Missouri as a youth leader, team leader and program supervisor.

Hoppes wrote the original program for WEC which was later adapted and transformed.

In preparing the program criteria, Hoppes toured several facilities including correctional facilities known as "boot camps" in Texas and facilities at McNeel Island, Wash. and Summit, Ore.

Hoppes said that many of the programs offered at WEC like cognitive restructuring, job skills training, GED preparation and physical training are all important parts of the WEC program. Those required programs, which are volunteer in a normal correctional setting, point offenders at WEC in the right direction.

Hoppes said the difference between the offenders at WEC and the inmates in a correctional facility is the criminal mentality.

"The young people here aren't so far down criminal chain that they can't come back," he said.

In the prison setting, the mentality is different, Hoppes said. "They have a lack of empathy they're self-centered, calculating. They feel used and their behaviors are ingrained. There's an intent to manipulate, cheat and lie their way through life," he explained.

"The people in prison think they can't change or they just don't want to,"

The WEC program gives people who want to change the opportunity and the means to do so, he said.

"We provide the tools. If they don't want to use them, we can't force it."

Sgt. Greg Dankleff

Before coming to the McCook Work Ethic Camp as the sergeant in charge of the facilities road crews and admissions supervisor, Sgt. Greg Dankleff worked as a security officer at the state's maximum security facility in Lincoln.

Dankleff said he doesn't see a lot of difference between offenders at WEC and inmates at in a normal correctional facility coming in to the two separate programs, but the difference going out is definite.

"There's a change in attitude, a change in direction," for those at the WEC, he said.

"In a prison setting, the inmates were let out at 2:15 in the afternoon and locked up at 4 to wash for dinner. In the meantime, they sat and watched TV. There's no direction -- they're just sitting around getting advice on becoming better criminals."

When offenders leave the camp, "their attitudes as so much more positive. It's neat to compare when they come in to when they leave," the change is significant, he said.

Dankleff said the offenders who are given assignments on the facility's road crews are normally happy to be there.

He only hears a few complaints. "Most of them are just glad to be out doing something," he said.

For the most part they work as hard as can be. In fact, said Dankleff, a representative from one road crew project in Stratton told him the young people had "worked harder than he's ever seen anyone work."

Case Worker Bethany Monnahan

Before coming to the McCook Work Ethic Camp, Bethany Monnahan worked at Southwest Nebraska Youth Services with juvenile delinquents.

Offenders at WEC are given the opportunity to find a different outlook, she said, "they learn a positive way of thinking, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of pride. It allows them a better outlook on life. They can finally have a sense of achievement in their life."

Through the program, offenders begin to see the affects their actions have had on their families and friends. The program gives them the initiative to reconnect with their loved ones, she explained.

The program also deals with anger issues.

"A lot of them are coming down off drugs when they get here. Some are dealing with authority issues, the programs offered at WEC teaches them to take time to make changes. It teaches them to think instead of resorting to negative behavior. By the time they leave here, they've taken real steps to overcome anger issues."

Sgt. Justin Anson

Justin Anson has been with the Nebraska Department of Corrections for five years.

He said he enjoys the laid back atmosphere of the WEC.

The success of offenders on the program depends mostly on the individual, Anson said. "Some have a direction and want to change. Some come in that will never change. They are set in their lifestyle."

"A lot of them come in hot headed, they don't want to be told what to do. Eventually most of them see we're trying to help them,'" Anson said.

Anson said the work detail is a real benefit to offenders at the WEC program. In the penitentiary, inmates who have earned "good time" in the pen have the opportunity to work, but most jobs are only a few minutes or hours a day, "then they walk the yard," he explained.

Cpl. James Ferguson

In his experience at the Norton Correctional Facility, James Ferguson has seen the difficulty faced by inmates in a prison setting.

Ferguson said the attitude and outlook of long-term prisoners was much different than what he sees at WEC. The inmates he dealt with had accepted their fate, he said, and many of them didn't want to get out. "They were there so long they had become accustomed to that way of life."

It's not like the prison programs you see on TV, he said. "It's mind-numbing boredom, not the constant state of tension normally depicted in the movies.

For those who do get out, the world is a difficult place, he said. "When they get out, everything is moving so fast they can't keep up -- it's faster paced than people are used to on the inside," he explained.