The center of the enterprise, and the site of last week's graduation, is the newly christened Greenfield Learning Center, named after Barry Greenfield, a member of the West Hollywood Public Safety Commission and an ardent SMART supporter.
Originally a large storage area that Bell talked superiors into giving him, it is today a carpeted, brightly painted and lighted space whose walls bear colorful exhortative posters ("You are valuable," one says. "Don't let anyone make you believe differently"). More than two dozen new computers rest on $30,000 worth of new office furniture donated by Silver Lake nightclub owner and gay activist Michaeljohn Horn.
The success of Bell and Lanni, who are straight, derives in part from their being veteran deputies who know how to navigate through the traditionally macho and bureaucratic Sheriff's Department culture. Bell, a tall, beefy, effusive man of 50, has been a deputy for 19 years. The 46-year-old Lanni, a trim, precise man, is a transplanted New Yorker who's been in uniform for 21 years.
Dealing with the inmates, Lanni said, is often easier than dealing with "some of our peers." Homophobia exists everywhere, including among other deputies, Bell said, but Sheriff Lee Baca has taken a stand against it in the department's mission statement.
What the two deputies have accomplished "is something that would be impossible for someone outside the culture who doesn't have good relationships within the department," said Mary Sylla, a former jail monitor for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California who is president of CorrectHELP, an agency that distributes condoms to county inmates.
Bell, Lanni and the other deputies who work the gay dorms are accustomed to what they call the "greater neediness" and "the flamboyance" of some of their inmates. Impromptu weddings -- "complete with bridal gowns," Bell said -- and New Year's Eve fashion shows don't faze them.
The two deputies' commitment to their charges is widely attested to by the inmates. Many say the deputies have more than once rousted them from their bunks and into the showers so they could make it to their life skills class by 7:30 a.m. The deputies also try to stay in touch with inmates after they've been released.
"They're almost father figures or good older brothers to some of the guys," Sylla said. "I've spoken at their graduation ceremonies a couple of times, and I get the feeling that for some of the guys, it's the first time somebody has ever patted them on the back for making healthy choices."
