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Youth Center Director Talks Future

Kevin Mann started position in March 2

This article appeared in the June 2, 2016 edition of the Odessa American


By Nathaniel Miller nmiller@oaoa.com


Kevin Mann said he had always been interested in a career with criminal justice, but he was not sure on what avenue he wanted to pursue in the field.


Then, in 2002, Mann said a friend told him the Ector County Youth Center needed employees and he applied, being hired to work as a youth center detention officer. It was about a few weeks into the job he said he decided working with at-risk youths was his passion.


“I’ve always wanted to help kids,” Mann said. “This door opened and when I first started working here, I knew criminal justice is where I wanted to go.”


The youth center is a detention facility where minors charged with crimes are held. It also houses an education center.


Mann, who now has 14 years of experience with the department, also worked as an intake officer and then as a probation officer before he was selected in March as the director of the youth center, replacing former director Lou Serrano.


Mann, who received a degree in criminal justice and a minor in psychology from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, said his path to director started when he told Serrano he was interested in becoming more involved in the day-to-day operations of the youth center.


Serrano said Mann’s chance, after receiving state training, came when Serrano applied for one of three newly created positions after the 84th Texas Legislative Session passed Senate Bill 1630 that focuses on trying to keep some convicted youths out of detention facilities.


Now the regional coordinator for the South, West and Panhandle regions with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, Serrano said he still works closely with Mann, adding he is confident in Mann’s ability to lead the employees in the youth center and work with the children. “I think one of the things Kevin brought to the table … he had some thoughts and ideas on where to improve,” Serrano said.


Serrano said his new position allows him to stay in Odessa and Mann said the mentorship between the two has since turned into a friendship. Mann said he still calls Serrano when he has questions. “Lou was a great mentor,” Mann said. “He is a great advocate for kids. To model myself after him is the direction I want to go.”


Serrano is not the only person Mann said he relies on for assistance, as another Ector County department director has not only similar experience, but also had the opportunity to know Mann all of his life. Richard Mann, the director for adult probation, is also Kevin Mann’s older brother. Also a graduate of UTPB with a degree in criminal justice, Richard Mann said his relationship with Serrano was great and he hopes to continue working with youth center employees under his brother’s leadership.


“If I had a project going on where I needed some officers to knock on doors to check on probationers, he (Serrano) would lend me officers and if they had something going on out there that had to do where adult probation might be involved, we would be out there,” Richard Mann said of his relationship with Serrano.


Richard Mann said he and Kevin Mann do talk about work, with Kevin Mann saying he bounces ideas off of his brother about what works and does not work as a director. Of course, as siblings, both said there is still a hint of sibling rivalry.


“We had the basic sibling relationship: He was the older brother and when I outgrew him, he still tried to tell me what to do,” Kevin Mann, who is taller than Richard Mann, said with a laugh. “That hasn’t changed.”


Richard Mann said he still likes to play the role of older brother now and then, but when asked about Kevin Mann’s appointment to the position, had nothing but praise for the work his brother has done while an employee with the youth center.


“He takes pride in wherever he’s working at,” Richard Mann said. “He owns stock in it and he wants it to look good whether he’s at the bottom of the totem pole or at the top.”

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