Boot camp a lesson in second chances

A 19-year-old Wheeling teen was given a second chance last week. Last month, the same second chance was granted to a 26-year-old Crystal Lake man.

It won't be known for some time whether that second chance was deserved, but chances are good this is what will keep these two out of trouble in the future.

Both Paul Dini and Jerod Culleeney were sentenced to the Cook County Sheriff's Department boot camp program as opposed to potentially going to jail. It gives them a chance to turn their lives around.

Boot camp consists of 18 weeks of military-style physical training, counseling, vocational training and educational assistance followed by eight months of post-release supervision. It turns a negative — pleading guilty to a crime — into a positive, as long as the camp inmate takes advantage of all that is offered both during camp time and, more importantly, out in the community.

According to the sheriff department's website, more than 4,000 inmates have completed the program. Of those, seven out of every 10 graduates do not return to state prison.

Will Dini, the 19-year-old Wheeling man who pleaded guilty to burglary, be one of the success stories? Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Fecarotta and Dini's defense attorney are hopeful.

“You made a mistake,” Fecarotta told Dini at his sentencing, as quoted by Daily Herald staff writer Barbara Vitello. “The trick is not to make the same mistake again.”

Dini's lawyer was even more sure. “You will not be seeing him in your courtroom again.”

Dini, who did not have a criminal background, is a perfect candidate for the boot camp program. Participants, who must be between ages 18 and 35, cannot have a violent or sex-related crime on their record and can only have been sentenced to state prison once. They must plead guilty and agree to be placed in the program.

If Dini is ever tempted to not see his sentence as a second chance on changing his life, all he has to do is look at what happened to the co-defendant in his case. Christopher DeLord, 21, pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Culleeney chose boot camp after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge for selling cocaine to an undercover officer. He initially was charged with a Class X felony that could have sent him to jail for 30 years.

The boot camp's substance abuse prevention program should be especially helpful for him.

Begun in 1997, the boot camp is unique in the Chicago area and serves as a model for other counties that may want to emulate it. If budget cuts need to be made — and we agree cuts are needed — in Cook County, this should not be the place.