Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies Randy Bell and Bart Lanni will be honored by Christopher Street West with the Special Community Award at the June 8 Mayor's Reception and will be featured in the June 12 Pride Parade. "It caught me by surprise," said Dep. Bell. "It was not something that we look for, because we get our reward from what we do. In fact, we told that to the people from Christopher Street West that it wasn't necessary, but they pretty much insisted."

Deputies Bell and Lanni are the creators and coordinators of an innovative jail program for gay men at Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, who are housed in a segregated unit known as K-11. The program, SMART (Social Mentoring Academic and Rehabilitative Training), provides specialized training and education designed to reduce recidivism.

Nearly half of the gay male inmates in the K-11 Unit are methamphetamine users. Narcotics, prostitution, and related crimes are the dominant reasons for the incarceration of K-11 inmates. Inmates enrolled in the SMART Program are provided education in HIV and anger management, substance abuse counseling, computer literacy and GED classes. "I really believe that making people available to a program that's very holistic and comprehensive has actually saved people's lives," says Bell. "Just being a part of that and giving something back to humanity is huge for us. We work in such a negative environment related to crime with the Sheriff's Department as well as other police agencies -- we're always working with a negative -- when we can help other people, it's such a reward."

Based on a 1985 court order, gay inmates are segregated from the general inmate population to reduce abuse by other inmates. The SMART Program was initiated on World AIDS Day, December 1, 1999. Prior to the creation of the SMART Program, the recidivism rate for gay male inmates was 94.7 percent of the average 310 inmates who are held in the K-11 Unit on a daily basis. For inmates who complete the 10-week course, recidivism drops to under 50 percent. Since the SMART Program began, nearly 200 inmates have completed the program, about 15 percent of the total K-11 population. Eighteen inmates received their high school diploma and over 40 inmates have received GED certificates while in custody. Today, SMART conducts six classes daily with approximately 130 participants.

"What Deputies Bell and Lanni have accomplished is truly exceptional and I am proud that the GLBT community is recognizing their efforts with this prestigious award," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. "This unique program is so effective that it is being studied and copied by law enforcement agencies across the country. Randy Bell and Bart Lanni represent the finest qualities of law enforcement and are exemplary representatives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department."

"I like to see people see that the Sheriff's Department, as well as us personally, have that big heart in helping people," says Bell. "Our sheriff and our command people that are in place today are extremely positive, because they're letting those of us that are in low-level, supervisory roles, as well as deputies, actually think out of the box, take some of our expertise, and actually put it back into the Sheriff's Department. That's what really makes this something new, different, and it's working -- we didn't have that before."

-- Joseph S. Amster