Program helps juvenile offenders payback community

The upcoming move to a new facility at 2137 Rust Ave. also represents new opportunities for Cape Girardeau County's Juvenile Department.

Once the department settles in and begins to adjust to its new surroundings, so will its community service and restitution project, "Operation Payback."

Created in 1984 by former chief juvenile officer Ruth Walden and deputy John Buchheit, Operation Payback was one of the first programs of its kind in Missouri, said Randy Rhodes, current chief juvenile officer for the department. He remembers Operation Payback as a relatively new program when he started at the department.

"We just kept it rolling," Rhodes said. "It's a positive thing for the kids to work -- sometimes earning restitution to go back to the victims, sometimes just doing community service hours."

Operation Payback annually disburses more than $4,000 to victims of crime and allows participants to work off as many as 5,000 community service hours. Supervising staff for the program are funded by the Missouri Division of Youth Services Diversion Project.

The department also used state grant funds to purchase six Mongoose fat-tire cruiser bikes and several used bike trailers, which will go toward continued work under Operation Payback. With the department's move to Rust Avenue, it will be near Cape LaCroix Trail and some of the Shawnee Park Center soccer fields. Rhodes said the bikes and trailers will be taken out around these areas to pick up trash along the trails, the park and La-Croix Creek.

The department isn't necessarily in the "trash pickup business," he said, but that type of work benefits the surrounding community.

"Since we're close to the trails and the park and soccer fields, keeping trash and cans out of the stream through there and making everything more presentable out there as we're transitioning to a new facility, we just thought that would be a good idea," Rhodes said.

Being a good neighbor is something the department has tried to do at 325 Merriwether St., the location of the former detention site.

The location is still in use as youths work the half-acre garden planted at the site. That work also is part of Operation Payback. They have been gardening in that spot more than 15 years, Rhodes said.

The garden and two small greenhouses produce a variety of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, okra, peppers and watermelons.

Those involved in the gardening learn on-site how to preserve, can, freeze, dehydrate and cook the items they helped grow.

They take some of the food home but deliver much of it to the Safe House for Women and low-income senior apartment complexes in the area.

Rhodes said the garden is pretty popular, largely because participants are doing work that improves the community.

"They get to learn something with the food production, and the delivery is really a high point at the end of the day, when they know the food is going to the women's Safe House and senior houses," he said. "... We're supposed to be getting kids who won't cooperate in school and won't cooperate in the community, but we rarely have any behavioral issues with those kids who come in and do those jobs and work around the facility."

While the garden was started simply because "we wanted to see the kids work," Rhodes said it's been fruitful over the years.

He recalled a recent season -- a "perfect storm" year -- when participants brought in tomatoes by the wheelbarrow full, ultimately recording 650 pounds produced.

Last year, 1,500 pounds of vegetables were grown in the garden. Rhodes said if the program can secure the funding, he would like to put up a large greenhouse and begin year-round production.

Like the addition of the bikes and trailers, it would be another opportunity for clients in Operation Payback to "get some sunshine" and continue the work that helps improve their community, he said.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

2137 Rust Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

325 Merriwether St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.