Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Jason Hartnell, 20, laughs as he irons his work clothes in the laundry room of the Albuquerque Boys Reintegration Center. Hartnell moved into the center in October and says he plans to stay there until he is 21. The rehabilitation programs and the structure offered by the center are factors in his desire to remain.

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He irons the crease in his black slacks, then takes a few swipes at the wrinkles in his white shirt. Jason Hartnell, 20, of Albuquerque is getting ready for work — and talking about why he didn't run away from the Albuquerque Boys Reintegration Center.

The center, at 4000 Edith Blvd. N.E., is home for him, if he chooses to stay and comply with the rules, until he turns 21 and completes his sentence for second-degree murder.

Seven residents have escaped since February 2007, when the center opened. One of them is jailed on a murder charge in Farmington, and three are still at large.

"I would rather stay to get as much help as I can," Hartnell said Tuesday during a supervised tour of the center.

"I'm trying to be independent, and this place will help me do that."

Hartnell and two state employees showed The Tribune the spotless day room — where residents watch TV and play cards — as well as the guard station and living quarters.

Hartnell bunks alone in Sleeping Room 1; stores his clothes and shoes in the closet at the foot of his bed; does his laundry across the hall, and goes to counseling twice a week in an office down the hall.

Hartnell says he has accepted the routine, unlike those who escaped.

"It's all on the individual. If you want to change, you can," he said. "I decided I wanted to change."

Hartnell realizes he's made a choice that the escapees probably didn't consider.

"The ones who mess up like being in trouble," he said. "They probably got bored. They wanted an adrenalin rush. They wanted to have fun."

But the center, which has 15 residents this week, isn't exactly a fun place. It is supposed to be a transition to the real world, a place to prove responsibility and self-control.

"Our goal is to help them, and we try to help them. Sometimes we don't get there," said Kirk Rowe, the state supervisor of reintegration centers.

Problems residents have to overcome include drugs, parents in prison, shattered families and gang affiliations.

"Sometimes we don't even know how deep those problems go," Rowe said.

Throughout the year, about 42 boys, including the seven escapees, were housed at the center to prepare for their release to the community.

While in the reintegration centers, residents are allowed to work and attend school, but they must check back into the center nightly. While they are out in the community, probation officers check on them at least twice a day, Rowe said.

Residents like Hartnell handled the responsibility well, Rowe said.

"Jason was one who said he had to do this on his own," he said. "He's got the motivation. We can't force it; we can't make it happen. Motivation has to come from within."

Hartnell said he has a steady job as a cook and is enrolled full time at Central New Mexico Community College in business classes. He reports a 3.23 GPA. He hopes to work someday in the clothing industry.

"I actually have my fair share of street smarts and book smarts," Hartnell said.

"I'm a quick learner. Whatever I had to do I did it, so I learned to cook. I've been on my own since I was 12 and lived on the streets. All I had was my clothes on my back."

At age 17, he was arrested along with a friend in connection with the 2004 beating death of George Leroy Armijo, 57, in front of his Martineztown home.

Another boy, Hartnell's friend, Rodney Segura, 16, was also charged.

Police said Segura's mother had been beaten by Armijo with brass knuckles and the boys apparently wanted revenge.

Hartnell has served his time in state facilities in Las Cruces and Springer before moving to Albuquerque. Considered a model prisoner, he earned his way into the Albuquerque reintegration center.

The state Children, Youth and Families Department this week took new pictures of all of its residents in reintegration centers in case there are more escapes and they need to distribute photos to the media.

The department has been criticized for not prosecuting escapees and is being accused of not making public safety its priority after two killings involving boys who escaped from reintegration centers.

An escapee from the Eagle Nest Reintegration Center was involved in the August 2007 killing of an Albuquerque man and then killed himself during a police chase.

There are about 57 young men housed in six state reintegration centers for juveniles operated by the department.

"Every single one of them will be out on the streets someday," Rowe said. "We don't want to just dump them out on the streets."

Rowe said Hartnell isn't the only success story.

"There are a fair number who are doing this," he said of those who are working and going to school while living in the centers.

"The ones who end up doing something bad make us look bad."