Homer Alaska - News

If a juvenile probation officer needs a little street cred to do the job, Ray Ortiz has a resume that includes some of the toughest beats in Alaska — heck, anywhere. Ortiz, 54, born in Harlem, New York City, started this summer as Homer's only juvenile probation officer. From his roots growing up in the city to jobs at maximum security juvenile detention centers, Ortiz has seen it all.

Take a recent job working with juveniles with the Sullivan County and Orange County Sheriff's Office in New York. There, Ortiz worked with Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings and MS-13s. Others might have been shocked. Not Ortiz, who came from a family with seven boys, some of whom wound up in prison.

"I kind of grew up around it," he said. "These were the same people I grew up with, but they're behind bars."

Ortiz came to Alaska in 1987 and first started as a house parent at Hope Cottages in Anchorage. He later worked as a youth counselor at McLaughlin Youth Center in a locked unit for serious violent offenders.

"There were a lot of kids in for serious crimes, up to murder," he said.

After 12 years at McLaughlin, Ortiz moved to the Lower 48 to care for his elderly mother. He also coached professional basketball in Europe and college basketball in California. Basketball is one of his passions — and part of what kept him out of trouble in Harlem. He wants to do basketball clinics with middle school students and do meetings where he can talk about drugs, alcohol and juvenile probation.

When police charge a lower Kenai Peninsula juvenile with a crime and refer the case to the Office of Juvenile Justice, Ortiz is the first contact. Working with his supervisor in Kenai, Allison Gottesman, they decide what to do with that offender. (See related story)

Community safety is a priority, but also the offender's family.

"The family is the issue, the key issue," he said. "If you can get the parents and the kids working together — what we want to do is tell the family this is a helping organization."

Involved as he is with the juvenile crime situation on the lower Kenai Peninsula, Ortiz has a unique perspective.

"I've seen kind of a dichotomy of what's going on here in Homer. It's not as bad as some people think, but it's worse than some people think," he said. "It's not as well known the gravity of substance abuse problems or the neglect of kids problem."

To welcome him to Homer, Kenai Peninsula Youth Court director Ginny Espenshade invited Ortiz to a lunch meeting this summer at the Homer Foundation. What he didn't realize was that Espenshade had invited pretty much everyone in Homer social services to the meeting.

"People are more proactive," he said of his fellow social service professionals. "They're trying to network and do things."

As part of his job, Ortiz wants to get out of the office and make his face known to youth. With his experience, he can tell the kids who might be having a rough home life — the kids for whom a little extra attention now might prevent the wrong kind of attention later.

"We have a unique situation here where I can reach those kids," Ortiz said. "I want them to be able to say 'This probation guy is not a cop. He's somebody who can help me.' They won't duck and hide when they see me coming — also, the police department is OK, too."

Ortiz first came to know Homer on halibut fishing trips when he lived in Anchorage. Now that he lives here, he loves it.

"This is a great place to live," he said. "This is probably the most diverse community I've lived in. You can go from yuppies, hippies, grunge, conservatives — it seems to work. The people all seem to interact with each other."

For a kid who grew up in Harlem, it's a long way from home.

"I love it," Ortiz said. "Where else can a Puerto Rican walk down the block and not get stared at?"

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.