“People talk about recycling things,” says Elizabeth Gheleta. “We need to recycle people and not just throw them away. We need to develop more support for people coming back from jail or prison.”
For 38 years, the soft-spoken Menlo Oaks resident has been doing just that. As executive director of the Service League of San Mateo County, Ms. Gheleta has eased the lives of inmates in county jails and their families.
Through the Service League, thousands of men and women who have served time in jail have been able to recycle their lives, moving from the role of outcast to productive member of society.
Now Ms. Gheleta is retiring, and the county is saying thank you.
“Elizabeth is remarkable,” says San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley. “Not many people care about people in jail. The Service League serves a vital function. Without them, jail is a revolving door.”
More than 500 Service League volunteers do everything from tutoring and offering religious services to providing contact between prisoners and their families. “That reduces the tension and helps us run the jail,” Sheriff Horsley says.
Sheriff Horsley also credits Ms. Gheleta and the Service League with creating four homes to help inmates make the transition from jail to the community. Hope House serves women who are fighting substance abuse or who are pregnant; FAR House helps men. “If people are to be successful out of jail, they need help to get on their feet,” he says.
In August, Ms. Gheleta was one of three women in the county to receive the Jefferson Award for Public Service. This national award goes to “unsung community heroes — ordinary people who do extraordinary work without expectation of recognition or reward.”
The award reads, “Her passion and compassion have helped inmates improve their chances for success.”
Ms. Gheleta received a stunning sendoff Oct. 21, when several hundred county dignitaries and friends gathered under the dome of the old County Courthouse. The highlight was a mock trial in elegant Courtroom A. With “Judge” Jim Hartnett — a Redwood City councilman — presiding, a jury of county supervisors, judges and past presidents of the Service League found her guilty.
Her crime: “Committing public service with passion, dedication and selflessness.”
Out of China
Ms. Gheleta was born in China. Her beloved father, a British schoolmaster, suffered in a Japanese prison camp; he died shortly after being released. Her mother had escaped from Soviet Russia.When the Communists overran China, the International Refugee Organization evacuated her family and thousands of others to refugee camps in the Philippines. She lived there for two years, got an amazingly good education, and came to San Francisco when she was 14.
She entered to George Washington High School in San Francisco as a junior and graduated at 16. Two weeks after her 17th birthday, she married Eugene Gheleta, who had a similar history; they had been in the same refugee camp.
During the 1960s, the Gheletas raised three children and built the spacious house in Menlo Oaks where she still lives. She also put herself through college, earning a degree from the University of San Francisco.
As member and president of the PTA at Flood School, Ms. Gheleta experienced the challenges of the times. “The ’60s were a wonderful, fascinating time,” she says. She helped the kids from the east side of Bayshore to assimilate, and set up volunteer tutoring.
As a result, she says, kids who went through Flood had fewer problems later. “Kids learned to get along in first and second grade; they loved each other.”
By 1968, Ms. Gheleta needed a part-time job. The Service League had one.
Passion and compassion
“Coming as an immigrant, I really felt I could do something for the community and the family,” Ms. Gheleta says during an interview. “We wanted to see if there was a way to keep people from returning to jail — to break the cycle.“When you grow up in a Third World setting, you see things differently — poverty, people dying in the street,” she continues. “I wanted to help people.”
When she first started with the Service League, Ms. Gheleta was the entire office staff; she did everything. As the agency grew through the 1970s, she worked her way up to director of volunteers. “I’d get people to come and work and keep motivated,” she says.
When she started, the county jail housed about 120 people. Now the men’s and women’s jails in Redwood City hold close to 1,200 prisoners, Many are awaiting trial or serving sentences of less than a year.
“These are necessarily not bad people; they are good people who have made bad choices. They need retraining,” says Mike Nevin, a former San Mateo County Supervisor, who has replaced Ms. Gheleta as executive director of the Service League.
A major crisis came in 1978. Proposition 13 killed 80 percent of county funding for the Service League; the executive director left; and the organization got an eviction notice. Ms. Gheleta says that people believed the agency would close within a year.
Ms. Gheleta was offered the job — “without a pay increase.”
Her first hurdle was to bring around the commander of the jail, who was “not happy with a woman,” she recalls. She prepared a report that explained the league’s programs and how they would benefit the jail. He went along.
Working with the board, Ms. Gheleta also scraped up “a patchwork of funding that changes from year to year.”
Twenty-eight years later, the Service League has a staff of 25, and a budget close to $1.5 million. It even owns its own building, a 1910 brick telephone exchange at 727 Middlefield Road in Redwood City, which was remodeled by Ms. Gheleta.
Last year, 556 volunteers spent 31,410 hours making 16,000 personal contacts with inmates and their families. Inmates made 29,706 requests that were processed; 734 children played in the waiting room before visiting their father; 2,253 religious services were held; and 1,801 clients received services when they got out of jail.
Hope House
Ms. Gheleta is particularly proud of Hope House. This was established in 1990 to support women coming out of jail. It provides a six-month licensed alcohol and drug rehabilitation program, as well as counseling and training. The Junior League helped set up Hope House, and the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church works with clients.Since 1990, the Service League reports, 583 women have entered the program, 102 babies have been born, and 72 percent of the graduates are still clean and sober.
Theresa weighed 88 pounds when she got out of jail and went to Hope House. When she completed the program six months later, the 5-foot, 10-inch Redwood City resident weighed 138 pounds. Now she’s got a good job in administration and computer operations at a San Carlos company, and is enjoying her four daughters and two grandsons.
“It’s a miracle,” Theresa says. “When everything seemed hopeless, Hope House gave me hope.”
Theresa’s story contains lessons. She was doing all right as a single mom until her kids grew up and started leaving home. “I was lonely; I started drinking alone,” she says. “Drinking alone is dreadful.”
Theresa was arrested and sent to jail for embezzlement. She heard about Hope House from Service League volunteers while she was in the county jail, but the judge insisted she finish her sentence. Then she got admitted to Hope House.
At Hope House, Theresa participated in the very structured environment: up early, a walk, classes from 9 to 4, cooking three times a week. In parenting class, she recalls, “You learn things you should have done 30 years ago.”
Theresa also went through the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program. “It taught me the steps to recovery,” she says. “They loved me when I couldn’t love myself.”
From those difficult months, Theresa remembers Ms. Gheleta. “She was like an angel from God,” she says. “She really put her life in that work.”
On trial
It was standing room only in Courtroom A as Elizabeth Gheleta went on trial for “Committing public service with passion, dedication and selflessness.”“Judge” Jim Hartnett called the court to order, “Court Clerk” Mike Nevin swore in the witnesses, Sheriff Don Horsley and Sheriff-elect Greg Munks kept order as bailiffs.
“Prosecuting attorney” Charles Smith accused Ms. Gheleta of always making sure the candy given prisoners was fresh.
“Don’t let them fool you,” said “defense attorney” Michael Gheleta, the defendant’s son. “There’s no way she could have done all the things she is said to have done. She deserves to be free.”
Mr. Nevin, now executive director of the Service League, swore a series of witnesses to tell the truth etc. on a variety of books, ranging from “Mother Goose” to the “Palm Beach Diet.”
Redwood City Vice Mayor Rosanne Foust presented a proclamation from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accusing Ms Gheleta of “exemplary leadership.” She took the oath over a videotape of “True Lies.”
When Ms. Gheleta’s daughter, Kathy Crane, who owns the Yerba Buena native plant nursery on Skyline, took the oath, her brother asked for — and was given — “permission to treat as a hostile witness.”
As they described how Ms. Gheleta always prepared a hot meal for the family and celebrated Christmas twice, on Dec. 25 and then again Jan. 7 for Russian Christmas, “Judge” Hartnett snapped, “Don’t interrupt your sister.”
The guilty verdict was unanimous.
Ms. Gheleta was sentenced to “38 years or lifetime of continued public service, with credit for time served.”
What next?
Ms. Gheleta hasn’t made specific plans for retirement, but it’s obvious she’ll stay active. “Life is full of unexpected opportunities. I’m open to them,” she says.She enjoys taking friends up to Skyline for the luxurious teas and lunches her daughter provides at the beautiful native plant nursery established by the late Gerda Isenberg.
And Ms. Gheleta will certainly keep volunteering with the Service League. She’s already coordinating the Christmas party for children of prisoners, complete with photos taken with Santa to be shared with Mom or Dad. “Last year the Service League provided toys for 400-plus kids,” she says happily.
And she’s likely to continue encountering personal rewards. Just last July 4, Ms. Gheleta was working at a Kiwanis hot dog stand. A mother came up with her family — including an 8-year-old boy who was born at Hope House.
“She was so grateful at how her life had changed,” Ms. Gheleta says. “Without Hope House, that child would be in foster care; she would be in jail.
“That does it. That’s what keeps you going.”
