From The Orlando Sentinel - June 13, 1996
Shoplifters learn crime isn't play
YES Program teaches teens that a '5-finger discount' doesn't add up
By Sandra Mathers OF THE SENTINEL STAFF
He's a typical, all-around kid: a 15-yearold with pretty good grades and an eye toward making Eagle scout. Mom and Dad are professionals with master's degrees who run a tight ship at home ..
So why was "Danny" - who asked that his real name not be used to protect his privacy - arrested, handcuffed and hauled away in a police car earlier this year?
He committed the most common crime among teen-agers in Central Florida. Kids call it a "five-finger discount." Cops and store owners call it shoplifting.
Danny was lucky. Because the theft was his first offense, the court system referred
the West Orange High School sophomore to the YES Program.
The Youth Educational Shoplifting Program - operated by the Human Services Council in Orlando - is designed to divert first-time offenders from the clogged juvenile court system. sock them with a dose of reality and give them a second chance with a clean record.
"These are good kids with bad judgment," said YES director Esther Wilson. "It's peer pressure. They see friends do it and get away with it."
Going along with the crowd was exactly what Danny did when he and three other teens wandered into a Target store one day last February.
The three other boys began stuffing their pockets with candy and one lifted two CDs.
"I figured 1 might as well join the bandwagon," said Danny, who snatched a tape of the movie Highlander and stuffed it into his friend's baggy vest.
"I looked around," he said. "It looked like it would be pretty easy."
It almost was.
After hurriedly removing the security strips from the merchandise, the boys headed for the front door. Danny made it to the parking lot; the others didn't.
When he saw his friends turn back into the store, Danny followed, unaware the man in the T-shirt and baseball cap with them was actually a store security guard.
Unlike the average shoplifter who steals dozens of times before being caught, Danny said he was nabbed during his first try. He says it will be his last.
Danny credits the YES Program with teaching him a valuable lesson: "Shoplifting isn't worth it. They'll catch you."
In the past four years, more than 1,800 kids have completed the YES Program, said Tim O'Brien, the program's lead caseworker.
In the past 10 months, more than 600 youths, ages 11 to 17, caught shoplifting in Orange County have gone through the program.
Geared primarily toward teens from surrounding counties who are arrested in Orange, the local program also has served kids from other states and countries who are caught shoplifting here.
The beauty of the YES Program, officials said, is that it's something like a correspondence course because it's done alone and at home. After an initial interview, the participant is given a kit containing two cassette tapes, a work· book and a test that can be completed in about five to six hours over two weeks.
If the test score indicates the youth is likely to shoplift again, he is enrolled in an 8-hour class led by a YES instructor who helps him focus on why he stole and how to stop.
"When kids are under stress, they are more at risk of acting out in this way, to get away from their feelings," O'Brien said. "The class stresses this."
The program also teaches kids the high cost of retail theft, not only to the store, but also to consumers who pay more at the cash register to cover the losses, he said.
In addition to the test and class, shoplifters are required to write a letter of apology to the store, volunteer at nonprofit organizations or get more intensive counseling, if necessary.
Because many area stores slap a $200 civil citation on shoplifters, often requiring them to repay many times the actual cost of the stolen item, some teens must get a job to work off the debt.
The program's $75 fee covers the cost of buying the kits from Shoplifters Anonymous, a nonprofit organization for adults in Jericho, N.Y., which developed the teen program in 1992.
Today, hundreds of YES Programs are operating 'in 39 states, including Florida, which has 36, said Caroline Kochman, Shoplifters Anonymous' national director of court services.
Few program graduates are arrested a second time. Nationally, only 3.2 percent of those completing the program continue to shoplift, Kochman said.
"It doesn't talk down to them. They can relate," Kochman said. We teach them how to weigh the risk vs. the reward. The risk for them is personal ... what they have to lose. It isn't the same for everybody."
For "Martha" - not her real name - shoplifting was an impulse "to see if we could do it. •• The Colonial High School junior learned she and her friend could. They grabbed lipsticks, perfume and a watch at a Wal-Mart store last year before they got caught.
But she also learned the consequences weren't worth it. "I was scared, I was ashamed and I was afraid of what my mother would say," said the 17-year-old. "I felt like a prisoner."
Martha says she had the money to buy what she stole. She didn't have the money to repay her mother the $75 program fee and the $200 civil fine to the store.
So Martha went to work as a maid at a Walt Disney World hotel at $5.95 an hour.
"You have to learn from your mistakes," Martha said. "I'll never do it again. I need to make something of my life ... [the YES] class taught me that."
• The Yes Program was begun four years ago to educate first-time offenders
without giving them a record.
• Approximately 1,800 kids have completed the program since 1992.
• Nationally, the repeat offender rate is low. Only 3.2 percent of those
completing the program shoplift again.