As a juvenile court probation officer in Chicago, Hector Escalera can relate to the kids he works with—kids arrested for crimes—because he was once one of them.

"I was a little out of control," says Escalera, 34, who now has a seven-year-old son and a career that belies the turbulent childhood that landed him in the juvenile justice system. "I trusted those that were in my community, but they were leading me into drugs and gangs."

"I'm just happy that I made it, that I had the support and encouragement of this department and the people here," says Escalera. The young people he now works with "remind me of me," he says. "If I succeeded, they can."

That's the message the Cook County Juvenile Probation and Court Services Department hopes to send by hiring probation officers who were once in the system. "When our kids succeed, it helps dispel the myth that these are 'throw-away kids,'" says Mike Rohan, director of the department. At the same time, "kids connect with officers who have been in the system."

This innovative hiring strategy is a byproduct of juvenile detention reforms undertaken by Cook County, a model site in the Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). Since 1992, JDAI has worked to ensure that young people are not unnecessarily or inappropriately confined, which is a costly practice that has negative repercussions for youth and society.

Between 1996 and 2005, Cook County reduced its average daily population in locked detention from 682 to 420, developing alternatives for young people who don't pose a serious threat of fleeing or jeopardizing public safety. It also instituted new hiring practices to make the department more representative of—and responsive to—the mostly minority youth it serves. Most of the dozen probation officers who are former clients are African American or Latino. The department recruits these officers by providing college and vocational training scholarships to promising clients, then offering internships and special hiring consideration to some graduates.

Escalera says the young people he mentors are at first resistant, but he wins them over by being "creative and consistent." Finding out that he has been in the system makes a big difference. "They can relate to me," he notes. "When we relate to each other, we have a better understanding, there's a bigger trust. We know how to communicate."

Hector Escalera, a Chicago juvenile court probation officer who was once a youth in the juvenile justice system, warns kids about the consequences of gang involvement (left) and meets with parents (center) and
a young client (right).