RSAT GRADUATION Youngsters express thanks to judge, others who helped

Kids who lack education will be 'consumed by the streets,' a gang violence negotiator says.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- One by one, seven new graduates of Mahoning County Juvenile Court's Residential Substance Abuse Treatment and Juvenile Treatment Court programs stepped to the microphone Wednesday to thank Judge Theresa Dellick, their counselors and others who helped them to tackle their addictions.
Charles Bolden didn't believe one of them.
"If you want to thank Judge Dellick, come back here in 10 years and mean it," said Bolden, who was keynote speaker at the ceremony in the juvenile justice center.
Bolden, 45, of Monessen, Pa., has been owner of a transportation company; bodyguard for a professional boxer; a gang violence negotiator; a karate instructor; and a minor league basketball coach. He wore a black leather vest that identifies him as a member of Brothers of the Hammer, a motorcycle enthusiast group with seven chapters in three states, including Youngstown.
Bolden has seen many lives destroyed by drugs, he said, tearing up at memories that are too painful for him to relate.
Message to teens
As society becomes more and more consumed with instant gratification, Bolden's message to teens is that they need to "give up part of their lives now to live the good part of life. I want these kids to see how big this world is," he said.
The average life expectancy in the United States is 77 years, but the life expectancy of prison inmates is about half that, Bolden said, challenging graduates to look up the statistics for themselves on the Internet.
Monessen, which is south of Pittsburgh, is smaller than Youngstown and a "weary steel mill town" that lacks life-sustaining jobs, Bolden said. There and here, Bolden emphasizes the importance of education: "If you don't have education, you are soon to be consumed by the streets," he said.
RSAT began in September 2002 as the only in-house residential substance abuse treatment program for juveniles in Ohio. Juvenile Treatment Court, which began in October 2001, features intensive probation monitoring with chemical dependency treatment. Criminal charges against Juvenile Treatment Court participants are dropped upon graduation.