
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995                   TAG: 9510250062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ARTIS CITES OWN THIEVERY IN OFFERING CRIME SOLUTION

Who better to comment on Virginia's juvenile justice system - hours before the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform convened for a public hearing in Roanoke - than a state legislative candidate with a little firsthand experience?

Republican Jeff Artis candidly offered a personal history of juvenile delinquency at a fund-raiser Tuesday before a group of about 50, including guest speaker Attorney General Jim Gilmore.

"I used to be a thief," Artis said.

Artis' audience, including Gilmore, seemed unaffected by his revelation. Some may have heard it before. It wasn't the first time Artis had publicly referred to his past.

As a youngster, "I would go to [a] department store in Winchester, Virginia, and steal merchandise," said Artis, who is challenging Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke. "When I was a teen-ager, I broke into a building and stole approximately $1,000 worth of items. It was because I wanted to."

Artis - who has long abandoned thievery and who supports boot camps for juvenile offenders and "real" rehabilitation for criminals - used his experiences to illustrate that the best crime-prevention program is personal responsibility and accountability.

"There are reasons why I no longer participate in criminal activity and the reason why you, ladies and gentlemen, do not participate in criminal activity and that is because you made the decision not to commit crime," he said. "We need to go back to that basic idea.

"As far as I'm concerned, the best crime-prevention programs don't cost any money. The best crime-prevention programs begin with self."

As a third-grader, curbing his criminal interests had less to do with personal responsibility than his mother's wrath, Artis said.

"I don't have to tell you what happened when I went home and told my mother I beat up my best friend with a baseball bat," he said. "Because in this day and age, what she did to me was politically incorrect.

"After I could sit down, I have never in my life picked up anything to try to hurt anybody again."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB