SECOND CHANCE FOR FIRST-TIME OFFENDERS

LaTanya Gatlin was "headed for nowhere" selling rock cocaine in the Tenderloin.

Olga Cruz, addicted to heroin at age 13, sold drugs in the Mission. Kendricks
Anderson, a former high school honor roll student, peddled pot in
Bayview-Hunters Point.

Less than three years later, Gatlin is a nursing assistant just shy of earning
her high school diploma. Cruz is drug-free, has regained custody of her young
son and is enrolled at City College. Anderson, who completed a year at City
College and maintained a 3.76 grade point average, leaves next week for Shaw
University in Raleigh, N.C.

They were among 10 young adults -- ranging in age from 18 to 25 -- to graduate
Tuesday from an intensive program called Mentor Diversion that gives first-time
narcotics offenders the chance to clear their records by going back to school.

When San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, who quietly launched the
program in October 1996, stood before the graduates and said, "I move to
dismiss the charges against all of you," the packed courtroom at the Hall of
Justice erupted into cheers. The eight male and two female graduates hugged one
another, cried and exchanged exuberant high-fives.

The participants, all charged with felony drug possession for sale or drug
dealing, had graduated from the program through a lot of hard work.

Along the way, they had been endlessly pestered, cajoled, encouraged and
reprimanded by the program's presiding Municipal Judge Ellen Chaitin and a
cadre of dedicated case managers.

The young adults had earned -- or are weeks away from earning -- either a high
school graduate equivalency degree or are enrolled in community college
courses. To graduate from the program, they must have taken eight to 12 units
at college and maintained a C average for a minimum of 24 months.

They were also required by Judge Chaitin to write and read aloud biweekly book
reports on such works as "Convicted in the Womb" by Carl Upchurch and "Laughing
in the Dark" by Patrice Gaines. And they had to call the court five times a
week and attend weekly support groups, where they learned everything from how
to write a resume to how to interview for a job.

"Without this program, I don't know where I'd be," said a teary-eyed Cruz,
holding a framed certificate of graduation and a long-stem red rose, handed out
by Mayor Brown. "I'm once again a normal citizen."

Cornelius Scott, a ninth-grade dropout, is now enrolled at City College. "This
isn't about me, this is about the people who are my backbone -- my family and
the people here today," he said. "There are going to be a lot of people who
hear about this program and say, "Gosh, I wish I had this opportunity.'
Cornelius Scott got it -- and he thanks you."

The San Francisco pilot program began with 25 participants and virtually no
funding. It now has 75 participants and $150,000 in city funding.

Since its inception, three participants have been rearrested and an estimated
seven opted out of the program. The remainder are working to graduate, Judge
Chaitin said.

Tuesday's graduation ceremony, with cake, punch and the flash of cameras, was
attended by Hallinan, Mayor Brown, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, Police Chief Fred
Lau, a host of judges, attorneys, education officials and proud family members.

Public Defender Jeff Brown, who has worked closely with the Mentor Diversion
program, said, "This is what criminal justice should be about -- building up
human potential."

Addressing the graduates, who were in the courtroom's jury seats, Brown added:
"You had the power in you to change your life. This is the day you have broken
from a past that was destructive and is now productive."

Brown, who praised Hallinan for taking a chance on a program that risked
appearing soft on crime, said the cycle of poverty, crime and hopelessness had
been broken.

"Anyone who falls ought to be given a second chance," Brown said. "The most
expensive method of dealing with crime in this nation is incarceration. We need
more pioneering efforts like this."

A mentor diversion program in Oakland that was the prototype for San
Francisco's has seen just 25 percent of the participants commit other offenses
after completing the requirements.

In comparison, more than 46 percent of felony drug traffickers who were paroled
from state prisons in 1991 were arrested again and returned to prison within
two years, according to the California Department of Corrections.

Drug offenders were chosen for the program because of the sheer number of
young, first-time lawbreakers who land in court for possession or sale of
illegal drugs, said Judge Chaitin.

In San Francisco, there were 5,335 drug charges in 1995, the most recent
statistics available.

"These are young people who are just about to fall off a cliff," said Judge
Chaitin. "This is like a rope. They're either going to pull themselves up or
not."

The program gave Kendricks Anderson steely self-esteem and a reason to believe
in the future.

An 11th-grade dropout from Lincoln High School in The City, Anderson, the
former high school honor roll student, will now be the first in his family to
attend college. He wants to study sociology at Shaw University and return to
San Francisco to attend Hasting's Law School.

"Through this program, I found self-respect," Anderson said. "We were never
given the option of failing; only succeeding." Looking at Judge Chaitin, the
case managers who had worked closely with him and his fellow graduates, he
added: "You will all have a place in my heart -- and my head."

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Ghamal de la Guardia