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| Teen inmates learn 'dad' skills |
| By The Arizona Republic |
| Published: 08/19/2003 |
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Gustavo Ortega couldn't be there when his daughter, Mercedes, was born. He first heard her baby cries over the phone and couldn't believe he was a father. Then he went back to his cell, too tired to cry. Ortega, 17, is doing time for possession of narcotics and criminal damage at Adobe Mountain School, the state juvenile correctional facility in north Phoenix. On Saturday, he sat in an Adobe classroom with 9-month-old Mercedes on his knee. They, and Mercedes' mother, who is 15, are participating in Early Head Start, a federally funded program for teen parents, administered by Maricopa County. Since January, Adobe Mountain inmates like Ortega have been taking parenting classes, which include twice-monthly visits with their children and the children's mothers. The young men see it not only as a reward, but as a way to break the cycle of their earlier behavior. 'In this population here at Adobe, you've got a lot of boys who have children,' said Felipe Yanez, the Early Head Start teacher. 'I've talked to a lot of boys who don't want to participate because basically they don't care if they have a kid out there. So I give (the boys in the class) respect that they want to learn and they want to be in their children's lives.' Yanez teaches them about the stages of their children's physical and cognitive development, how to feed them, how to strap them into a car seat. 'We learn how to take care of a child, how to control anger,' Ortega said. Yanez tells them from the outset that they have to behave like gentlemen in his class because they are parents, role models. 'They're parents for the rest of their lives,' he said. And the sudden realization that they are responsible for another human being changes the way the inmates act, he says. 'As they begin to understand their role and how important they are as a dad, they start to change. They start to interact differently with their peers in their unit.' Outside on the lawn, Vito Oliva, 16, and his son, whom he calls Baby Vito, were spraying the little boy's mom with water bottles. 'He's my angel,' Oliva said as he lifts the toddler. Oliva's crimes include armed robbery, burglary and escape. 'I was messing up when I was out there,' he said. 'I wasn't paying attention like I should have. I was being mean. I was 14, 15, and all I cared about was drugs and gangs and stuff.' Now he says he's learning to be a good father. 'I know from my heart that I'm going to change for him because I don't want him sitting in a jail cell all night and all day like I do,' he said. The inmates can continue in the program after their sentences are up. The hard part, Yanez points out, is keeping them away from their old habits, the gangs and drugs, the bad friends. But sitting in the Early Head Start classroom with their kids, they're clearly experiencing one of humanity's oldest pleasures, the warm sense of wellbeing that comes from holding a child. The first time he experienced it, Ortega said, 'I couldn't say a word. I was shocked. She was just looking exactly like me.' Oliva sits in his cell at night and wonders what his child is doing. 'I love my son, but I'm just stuck in here,' Oliva said. 'When I get out I'm going to spend time with my son. I'm going to do better with myself.' |
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