Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch cut the ribbon today on a new transitional house for youth who are released from the Suffolk County jail after participating in Sheriff Vincent DeMarco’s Youth Tier Initiative.
The home, located on the corner of Old Farm and Middle roads, will accommodate up to four youth and a resident advisor in the newly renovated ranch house.
The collaboration represents one of the most innovative jail-to-community anti-recidivism efforts in the nation, DeMarco said.
The Right Path program is something DeMarco said he’s wanted to do since 2006.
“Having transitional housing has always been the missing link in our program,” DeMarco said. “The boys that go through our program that have nowhere to go or don’t want to go back to a dysfunctional family or back to a neighborhood, this gives them someplace to go, where they will still be in a program, still be under the watchful eye of a Thud Hill, where they can complete whatever they need to complete before going back into society,” the sheriff said.
The program will provide job and career counseling services, helping youth with resumes, clothing and mock interviews. It will assist them with obtaining drivers learning permits and licenses. It will monitor their sobriety with testing and counseling. It will teach them how to budget for groceries and how to prepare their own meals.
The idea is to equip the young men with the skills they need to successfully transition back into society and become productive citizens, Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch executive director Thaddaeus Hill said.
The Ranch, established in Riverhead in 1980 by Hill’s parents, Fern and Jerry, as a haven for neglected, abused and troubled boys, already has three other transitional homes for boys ages 17-21, who have “aged out” of the organization’s regular program but need housing and other help before being able to live on their own. See 2010 video interview with youth living in one of the Ranch’s other transitional homes.
“This will mirror that in some ways,” Hill said. Unlike these youth, the youth in the other transitional homes were not necessarily charged in criminal court, he said. Some may have faced charges in family court for offenses committed as juveniles too young to be prosecuted in criminal court.
“These guys might have gotten busted doing the same thing at 16 or 17, and wound up in criminal court and in the jail,” Hill said.
“None of the youths [housed in the new home] will be violent offenders or sex abusers,” Hill said. “Most will be first-time offenders. Hopefully have had the wakeup call in jail and we want to snatch them before they get back into the cycle. We want to break that cycle,” he said.
The youth who will be housed in the Right Path program have gone through “a real intensive program in the jail,” said Kristin McKay, the sheriff’s public relations director. “It gets them motivated, so their head’s in the right place,” she said.
There are 10 jail cells designated for the youth tier program, McKay said. All participants are ages 16-19. The Right Path program is exclusively for boys in the youth tier program. “They’ve gotten to a point where they’re strong. They’ve got their GED. They’re on their way to college. They’re already on the right path. We want to keep them on it,” McKay said.
“The youth tier program, which was begun as a pilot program in September 2011, and has had 70 participants to date, has seen one ‘graduate’ go to Suffolk County Community College, and two who’ve enlisted in the Army,” she said. “The officers in the program are amazing,” McKay said. “They really mentor these boys.”
The program at the jail is currently open to only 10 youth at a time, due to space limitations.
“With the new jail being opened in Yaphank, we will be able to dedicate more space to youth,” DeMarco said.
Much of the renovation work done on the house was completed by inmates participating in the jail’s labor assistance program. (See prior story, “Sheriff’s vocational training program refurbishes house for nonprofit group,” Oct. 9, 2012) Two inmates who worked on the project attended the ribbon-cutting today, though they stayed in the background just observing the ceremony.
Both wore bright orange clothing and wide grins.
Grant Marelli, 40, of Blue Point and William Fray, 38, of Manorville, both tradesmen serving time for DWI convictions, worked on the renovation project for about three months.
Marelli, a plumber, and Fray, a carpenter, said they worked on all phases of the project, from insulation, roofing and siding, to sheet-rocking, flooring and finish carpentry.
They enjoy the labor assistance program.
“It’s a good group of guys,” he said.
“It’s a good program,” Fray added. “They run a tight ship. And every day of the week we’re out doing something along these lines.”
“It gets us out of the jail to do something good,” Marelli said.
“We were able to help other guys learn how to do things,” Fray said. “That’s great because it will help them get work when they get out.” Fray has five weeks left on his sentence. Marelli said he’s counting down the days remaining in his; he’s due to be released in two weeks.
“I’m going to miss you guys,” a corrections officer standing nearby during the interview said.
“I’ll send you a card,” Marelli joked.
Photo captions, from top: (1) Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, left, Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco and Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch executive director Thaddaeus Hill snip the ribbon at today’s opening of the new home on Old Farm Road; (2) One of the four residents’ bedrooms in the transitional home; (3) William Fray, left, and Grant Marelli, inmates who worked on the home renovation project through the sheriff’s labor assistance program, chatting with Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch cofounder the Rev. Jerry Hill.
RiverheadLOCAL photos and video by Denise Civiletti
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