MOUNTAIN HOME — Judge Gary Isbell of the 14th Judicial District has sent only 14 juvenile offenders from his four counties to the state's Division of Youth Services since being elected in 1991.
Three of those were repeat offenders.
Isbell resorts so rarely to state juvenile programs because "most of the kids who get involved with the criminal justice system here are always going to be here," Isbell says.
"I've got everything in the world here. I've got the mouthy brats, the lost souls, the blank stares. I've got kids heavily involved in drugs and criminal activity,'' he said, "but not a lot of personal violence.
"Why would I send a kid to the Division of Youth Services to learn to commit crimes he never dreamed were possible?
"We decided it was the local community's responsibility to create an answer for these kids," he says. "Why import problems we don't have to import?"
The 14th district covers Newton, Boone, Marion and Baxter counties in northern Arkansas. Its largest city, Harrison, had 9,922 people at last count. Mountain Home had 9,027 residents.
Jasper, the county seat of Newton County, has only 332 people.
"I have lakes, rivers, hills and wilderness areas. By definition this area would be called 'rural Arkansas,' " Isbell says.
He presides in Mountain Home two days a week, spends Tuesdays at Harrison and alternates between Jasper and Yellville on Wednesdays.
"This is a rural area, and there's not that much for the kids to do," says Jay Altazan, who until recently led a drug and alcohol treatment program for youths in Mountain Home. The program is modeled after adult 12-step programs and taught at Baxter County's alternative school.
"The peer pressure is intense, and a lot of these kids are just bored. They hang out and end up getting involved with alcohol and drugs," he says.
On his four-county circuit, Isbell encounters far fewer felony offenders than do his colleagues in larger cities. "Most of my kids are really naive when it comes to criminal behavior," Isbell says.
"When I send a kid to the Division of Youth Services, it's usually for multiple offenses in a short time, when we can't seem to get a handle on the kid," he says. "It's not because we haven't tried."
Isbell was elected along with 34 other juvenile court judges in Arkansas seven years ago. Since then, he has spearheaded development of a "spider web" of innovative programs for youths that require parental involvement wherever possible.
That web centers around a districtwide "host home" program that provides emergency housing for youths and an alternative school in Baxter County that gives one last chance to students facing expulsion. The school also has a truancy-prevention program.
A $50,000 grant from the state Division of Children and Family Services enabled the county to expand its family resource center this year. The center offers parenting classes, workshops on everything from sensitive teen-age issues to money management, a monthly public address series and a library of child-related publications.
The spider web also draws in dozens of volunteers from the community.
John Nappo, who coordinates mentors at the alternative school, says he has close to 30 adults signed up to help the school's 50 students. Mentors take their students to lunch every Friday and try to get involved in their lives by helping with schoolwork, cheering at their ballgames or taking them to church.
In Baxter County's secondary schools, students chip in to settle conflicts -- and keep other kids out of the principal's office. More than 150 students have been trained as mediators in Mountain Home and area secondary schools.
One mediator at Mountain Home Junior High, Misty Baker, 14, says that most conflicts she has handled involved "normal teen-age stuff" -- arguments, gossip, even a case of french fry theft at lunch time.
Peer mediators contributed to a 50 percent drop in discipline problems at the junior high last year, says Kelvin Preis, a counselor who oversees the program.
"It seems like when the kids work with each other and solve their own problems, those problems stay solved," Preis says.
Baxter County funds juvenile services operations, but many key programs owe their existence to grant money and the enthusiasm of dedicated employees.
"We always knew we were going to be living on the edge. The reason that we have these programs here is because they're personality-driven. When you cut these people loose, they learn how to beg, borrow or steal to survive," Isbell says.
"We get the grant monies and try to figure out what we can do well and ought to preserve. Over time, we usually find funding to cover our top priorities," he says.
Despite the continual hunt for funding, Baxter County's juvenile services department plans to expand, not cut back its programs.
Cheryl Green, intake officer for the 14th Judicial District, saw one of her longtime goals realized this year when Baxter County received a $10,000 grant from the Division of Children and Family Services to recruit mentors for all clients of the county juvenile services department, not just the alternative school.
Juvenile court officers from across the 14th Judicial District are banding together to form a board that, they hope, will soon take over the $370,000 for community-based programs provided by the state Division of Youth Services -- money currently funneled through a private contractor in Fayetteville.
"Because the contracting agency, Youth Bridge Inc., is outside the district, and as a result of the trickle-down effect, we don't feel we receive the services these dollars could buy if managed within the district," Green said.
At present youths from the 14th District are sent to Fayetteville or Jonesboro for detention because the district has no group home or lockup.
If the board succeeds in attracting state funds, Green says, it will build a group home, finally allowing the district to keep as many youthful offenders as possible near home.