Service League - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...

done by Continental Caterers; there will be a
light cocktail supper; we’ll have a variety of
raffle items for people to look at; we’ll have a
wine tasting, thanks to a donor, a live auction
with Mike [Nevin] conducting that (he’s very
good at that and we’re looking forward to
being entertained by him ourselves). After
an hour to an hour and a half, the program
will commence in the ballroom, where we’ll
have several speakers. Our target is to raise
$100,000 with that money going toward
supporting our Hope House programs
as well as the purchase of two new Hope
Houses.”
After spending nearly half his life in the
pursuit of rustling up the guilty, Nevin has
grown weary of the never-ending cowboys
vs. Indians game, the pointlessness of it
all. Now he thinks the best way to win is to
discourage the opponents from playing. And
if it means clowning around as an auctioneer
to the amusement of the well-heeled and
bejeweled, he’ll swallow his pride and do it.
“It’s very clear to me that for us to make
our traditional programs and services in
jail work, that most people need help on
the outside when they get out. We can’t
release somebody from jail, put them out
on the street with two bucks in their pocket
and expect them to be all right. That’s not
going to happen,” he explained, unable to
process why something so simple to him is
so complicated for others.
“The whole point about re-entry is that
with all the work the Service League does,
both when the inmate is in and out of
custody, it greatly reduces the odds that,
come their first night outside, a person falls
back into the trap of recidivism. California
has the highest recidivism rate in the nation,
about 75 percent of those arrested in
California return to commit another violation
and end up in jail again. So our job is to lift
them up, help them out, help them with job
training, find them jobs, counsel them, house
them.”
The biggest challenge for Nevin and his
employees comes from explaining to people
that just because all criminals wear the same
uniforms, it doesn’t make them all alike.
“If your sentence is over a year, you go to
a state prison. If your sentence is less than a
year, you stay in county jail. So we’re dealing
with people who have either committed
minor offenses [or] have not been arrested
several times. We’re getting them at a time in
their lives where there really is a chance for
rehabilitation. The focus is to point someone
in the direction for success, to take someone
that is jobless, who is homeless, who is a
drug addict, an alcoholic, and to turn their
lives around. It’s hard for the public to get
this concept. People have an idea that
everyone who has worn a prison jumpsuit is
dangerous, that they’re violent felons, that
they’re beyond saving or not worth the effort,
and that is simply not the case, especially
with those in county jails. The problem for
us begins in that instead of trying to save
our program as the right thing to do from
a Christian-Judeo perspective, now we’re
trying to hammer through to people and
show people that it makes economical
sense. If someone is getting into trouble
and they’ve been in trouble once or twice,
there is a chance at turning them around. It’s
smart economically, because we’re turning
them into society, into people with jobs who
are back on the tax roll instead of costing
taxpayers money in jail,” he sermonized.
The Service League has many facets,
mostly dealing with inmates still in jail,
helping those interested in reaching out
to and reuniting with their families, or in
achieving personal goals such as learning
how to read, obtaining a GED or even
registering to vote. However, it is Hope
House, a residential treatment program for
women, that is their crowning achievement.
“The Residence Treatment Program
includes a full day of classes for all the
women, and they attend class and live in two
houses that are side by side in Redwood
City. Some of the classes include cooking,
nutrition, basic life skills that help them
refocus and be able to function in regular
home life,” explained Clapper.
Sixteen women are currently living inside
the twin houses, sharing in all the chores on
a rotational basis. They lean on one another
for support and companionship, comforted
by the fact that there is always someone
around — an instructor, a counselor — to
listen. Nevin believes the program to be a
more influential form of law enforcement than
anything he did with a badge.
“I was a police officer for a long time in
San Francisco and we went from person to
person and from case to case, but we never
had the chance to interact or help people
on this level,” he recalled. “We never had
“The whole point about re-entry is that with all the work the Service League does, both
when the inmate is in and out of custody, it greatly reduces the odds that, come their
first night outside, a person falls back into the trap of recidivism.”
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