Local students participate in ?Now You?re 18 Program?

For the past 20 or more years, the Lincoln County Sheriff?s Department has conducted an informational program with the high school seniors.

Sheriff Kerry Lee said the first phase of the program this year was held last week. ?We had about 60 kids from the Lincoln and Pahranagat Valley High, and KW Legacy Ranch. ?We talk about what happens legally going from a juvenile to an adult.?

He explained the tour begins at the detention center facility in Pioche, where students saw dispatch, the booking area and holding cell. ?Then we went to the fire station where D.A. Daniel Hooge spoke about the legalities of what happens in regards to the law once you cross from 17 to 18, a juvenile to an adult. They even told of some actual cases that we have dealt with here in Lincoln County, leaving out the names. In one such case mentioned, the person got involved in crime right out of high school and is now serving a life sentence in prison. We want to impress on them the huge difference in the law, just overnight, going from age 17 to age 18.?

Another person the students heard speak was an actual inmate come up from the detention center ?who talked to the kids, and fielded questions, about how things went wrong, how he got involved in drugs and alcohol, etc. Then, we of the sheriff?s department, also talked to the students. Following the presentations, we have lunch together and send them back home.?

Later in the spring, Lee said, the second phase of the program will be held, which is a visit to the Nevada Highway Patrol headquarters in Las Vegas and a visit to the Clark County Coroner?s office.

Lee said the students asked a lot of questions during the presentation at the fire station, not only of the district attorney, but of the inmate who spoke as well. ?Asked some good legal questions,? Lee said, ?and also of the inmate: What were some of the drugs he started out with, how he started down the wrong road, how old he was at the time??

Lee said the inmate selected was chosen from among those at the detention center who were interviewed. ?We try to find a person who has a story that pertains most towards the kids in our county. We interviewed several of them, to try to find our best bet, and this man?s story fit. He started at a young age with some burglaries, got into drugs and alcohol, later escalated to methamphetamines and more involved robberies.?

The man told the students, at one point in his life, he was so strung out and in bad shape from doing meth, his family did not know where he was, or if he was alive or dead.

He still has some time to serve, has a 7-month old child and girlfriend at home, Lee noted. ?But he is trying to turn his life around, getting his GED, etc. He wants to change his life, and get to where his family is a priority and not the drugs or alcohol. He is only 21, and could relate very well to the students.?

Lee reported that over the years of doing the program, they have had some who came back and said how meaningful and helpful the program was to their own lives.