Alexis Lawson spent part of her teenage years locked inside the Douglas County Youth Center. Now she walks back through those same doors on purpose, not as a detainee but as a mentor trying to keep other kids from following the path she once took.
Lawson was once incarcerated at the Douglas County Youth Center as a teenager and now returns to the facility to mentor and inspire youth, according to KETV. She has said plainly why she was there in the first place. “I was at DCYC, as a youth, for truancy and fighting,” Lawson said, per the station's reporting.
From Truancy to a Crack Cocaine Addiction at 18
Her troubles did not end when she aged out of the youth system. “Then by the time I was 18, I started smoking crack cocaine,” Lawson said, according to the same report. She has also said, “No one at the age of 12 decides they're going to be a crack addict at 18. I didn't.”
The station reported that her challenges continued into adulthood, with time spent in the Douglas County Jail, multiple charges, and two felonies. Sobriety eventually arrived at 35, the outlet reported, giving Lawson what she has described as a new path forward.
Teaching the Program She Wishes She'd Had
Today Lawson leads Life Identity Training and Transformation, known as L.I.T.T., a program that brings her back inside DCYC as a mentor rather than a resident. Through L.I.T.T., she teaches youth how to set life goals and transition from negative behaviors to positive ones, the station reported. It is, in her words, something she needed herself at that age. “It's something that I wish that I had when I was younger. No one ever asked me about my goals and my dreams and visions,” Lawson said.
Her stated goal is straightforward: help kids get on the right track early, so they don't carry the burden of crime into adulthood, according to the report. The impact of her program has extended beyond DCYC as well, with Lawson now offering L.I.T.T. to youth outside the facility, the station noted. L.I.T.T. is also launching a community cohort.
Youth Center Placement Rules
Per the Youth Center's published FAQ, the only way a youth is placed there is for a law violation authorized by an officer of the court, which can include a law enforcement officer, a judge or a probation officer.
A Pattern Seen Beyond Omaha
Lawson's approach echoes a broader push elsewhere to use formerly incarcerated adults as mentors for youth still behind bars. In Los Angeles County, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition's Credible Messengers program has had formerly incarcerated individuals volunteering to visit incarcerated youth at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall for nine years, as reported by Spectrum News 1. In 2023, the county's Department of Youth Development went further, funding 10 formerly incarcerated people to mentor youth full-time at juvenile halls across the county.
The thinking behind those programs is similar to what drives Lawson's work in Omaha: these individuals have a level of understanding of what incarcerated youth are going through that is often unmatched, Spectrum News 1 reported. The Los Angeles program also helps participants get into a trade or college curriculum and provides housing, therapy and a stipend, according to the outlet.
Research Behind the Peer-Mentor Model
The push for peer mentorship is grounded in research suggesting it works. Peer mentors can reduce recidivism, Governing reported, citing work in the juvenile-justice field.
There is also research on the stakes of doing nothing. A study cited by Spectrum News 1 found that being incarcerated as a youth resulted in poorer physical and mental outcomes later in life, along with increased risks of substance abuse and adult incarceration. For Lawson, that research lines up with her own biography — and with the reason she keeps walking back through the doors of the facility where her own record first began.
