A Wayward Young Man Corrects His Life’s Course

Richard Landeros was playing basketball and drinking beer at a Riverside middle school last year when the police were called. Landeros, then 18, fled in a car with his friends, but they were pulled over and Landeros was arrested for drinking and driving.

When he went to court, the judge offered to clear his record if he successfully completed a 20-hour program at the Teen Education Mentorship Program, or TEMPO. He said the classes, including visits to a jail and a morgue, taught him the error of his ways.

“I don’t want to get in trouble anymore,” said the Riverside pool cleaner. “I don’t want to endanger myself or anyone else.”

TEMPO receives about 300 first-time 13- to 19-year-old offenders from western Riverside County each year, said Mary Salvador, chief executive of the Volunteer Center of Riverside County, which runs the program.

“I like to compare it to ‘Scared Straight,’ ” she said. “They go through the jail; they go to the emergency room at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in the wee hours of the night to see what happens in drunk-driving accidents; they visit the prenatal center to see what happens to babies born addicted to drugs; they have a visit at the morgue. After the seven-week program, they have a better understanding of the consequences of drinking and driving, or using drugs.”

The program has a 5% recidivism rate, Salvador said. Teens sentenced to the program typically pay a $150 enrollment fee. But the center offers scholarships to low-income youths.

The program and the scholarships are supported by a grant from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign. This year, TEMPO received $15,000 from the campaign, which raises money for nonprofit organizations that assist disadvantaged children and youths in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Landeros said two of the pivotal experiences were presentations by drunk-driving victims, and the visit to the jail.

“There was a mother who lost her kid because he was drinking and driving, and killed himself and two of his friends,” he said. “The jail was pretty crazy -- a lot of losers in there, pretty crazy guys. I definitely don’t ever want to drink and drive again.”

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