LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Lake County just renewed its second-chance program for teens in trouble because it’s getting results.
Like much of Central Florida, Lake County attempts to keep young first-time offenders out of the criminal justice system if they’ve been accused of a minor crime and if they agree to work.
Djeff Ilere is the Work In Lieu Of Arrest (W.I.L.A.) program associate at the Lake County Probation Office. Offenders 10 to 17 years old come to the office to meet with Ilere after a run-in with the law.
“This is the first step of the process,” Ilere said. “After the citation has been initiated, we schedule an intake interview.”
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Youth are eligible only if the deputy involved in the incident was willing to give the child a civil citation rather than make an arrest.
“And that’s one of the advantages of this program,” Ilere said. “If kids go through this successfully, there is no formal prosecution. It is swift and immediate consequences and public safety is enhanced as well.
Ilere educates the children and teenagers about the law and its consequences.
He drug tests them and puts them to work every Saturday morning. It’s light physical labor – mostly beautification projects in the community because it’s the community they’ve harmed, Ilere said.
The last requirement before youth can graduate is to write a letter of appreciation and apology to the deputy who issued the civil citation.
Ilere read out aloud “one of our better-written letters that a young lady wrote to the deputy.”
“Thank you for the opportunity, it really helped me change as a person, it helped me be my best me,” Ilere read. “I learned my lesson in the W.I.L.A program and I don’t regret what I did anymore as it helped me become the person I am today and I am very grateful to receive a civil citation and to go through the W.I.L.A.”
Ilere said the letter speaks to the 1% rate of recidivism.
“That’s the importance of the program, that these kids are appreciative,” Ilere said. “And they don’t come back.”
If they complete four Saturdays of service, stay clean and out of trouble, the civil citation go away.
In Lake County, almost all do and almost none of the 145 youth who successfully completed W.I.L.A. over the past year came back.
Ilere said only 1% of Lake County’s W.I.L.A. graduates have re-offended, compared to 6% statewide.
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