One group of young criminals, in jail in Columbia, South Carolina, has been working very hard to turn their lives… and those of other children… around.

They're called "The Insiders." Larry Clamage tells their story.

NARRATOR:
Thirteen hundred criminals live inside this prison in Columbia, South Carolina. Like other penal institutions, its population includes people who have raped, robbed and murdered. What is different here? This jail is for juveniles. The average age of these inmates is just fourteen years old.

JOSHUA:
"My names is Joshua. I'm 16 years old. I'm from Lawrence, South Carolina, and I'm currently incarcerated in the Department of Juvenile Justice for 18 to 36 months."

NARRATOR:
Why?

JOSHUA:
"Well, for the charges of 2nd degree burglary, malicious damage to property, petty larceny and 2nd degree arson."

KIVI:
"My name is Kivi. I'm seventeen years old. I'm from Charleston, South Carolina, and I'm currently in the Department of Juvenile Justice for 2-4 years for first degree burglary, violation of probation and possession of a stolen vehicle."

WALTER:
"My name is Walter and I'm 16 years old. I'm from Charleston, South Carolina. Basically, I've been in this place right here, well, I was given a sentence...a guideline of 24 to 48 months."

NARRATOR:
In for armed robbery, it could have easily been murder.

NATURAL SOUND - ANDY:
"We want to make sure that you have skills, better skills. And when you get out of here that stuff won't effect you anymore. You won't have to worry about coming to an institution anymore."

NARRATOR:
Andy Broughton is the Prison's Prevention Coordinator. He works with troubled teens like Joshua, Walter and Kivi.

Broughton teaches them skills, which could help them become responsible adults. This is how he does it. He takes them into the community, to make motivational speeches to other young people, who might learn from their experience. His approach combines both rehabilitation and prevention.

The Insider's have become local celebrities... talking to forty thousand young people a year.

NATURAL SOUND:
"Good afternoon international students. I can say it like that if it's in there. I don't know if it is."

NARRATOR:
For an insider, travel time is also study time, since earning all A's and B's in school is a prerequisite for the job.

Good grades are a major accomplishment for these young people, considering that when most of them were on the outside, they were failing in school.

Today's destination... A local church.

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"We call them The Insiders. They have changed on the inside...on the inside of themselves. They are very concerned that people are listening to them.

The way I would know that he was angry was that he wouldn't say anything to me. If he's not talking to me, I know he's mad about something. Josh now can say, Mr. Broughton, I'm mad about this.

We're used to having undivided attention when we go anywhere. People are sitting on the edge of their seats, listening to these young people. What are they going to say next? What happened next in their life?"

JOSHUA:
"Good evening, come on...I know you can speak. I heard you when I came in."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"They want to make sure that the young people listen to what they have to say because they know that they can end up being just like them."

JOSHUA:
"I was going to do what I wanted to do. I wasn't ready for me to change me yet. I wasn't ready to change myself."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"Which, that's a major step there... where they go out and care about other people. Before, they didn't care about other people... That's not important to them what anybody else did in their life.... that's their life, let them do it."

JOSHUA:
"And if I got out, I could end up dead."

OFFICER:
"Take off your shoes, Sir."

NARRATOR:
Insiders like Joshua do not want other young people to end up where they are. Although Joshua may be a sought after speaker in the outside world, he is hardly a celebrity in here, where loss of freedom and privacy are consequences of one's offenses. In prison, someone watches them every second. He suffers the indignity of a thorough strip search every time he leaves for or returns from a speaking engagement.

For an Insider, rehabilitation does not begin and end with pubic speaking. Living in a military-style setting is designed to teach discipline and re-channel their destructive energies into constructive behaviors. But, the studies show discipline alone does not work. A striking majority of these children come from families where the parents were rarely at home. Andy Broughton believes, to teach children effective skills for living, one must also provide personal relations that have been missing in their lives.

MATH TEACHER:
"Why are we doing this? Geometry. We're going to study geometry after the break."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"My heart has to reach their heart, any of our staff, and that's the way we believe. That means we don't sit behind a desk and talk to the kids. They don't need someone to sit behind a desk and talk with them. They need somebody to be there with them doing the things they are doing, being with them in their life."

NARRATOR:
For Insider Kivi, who has had trouble resolving a conflict with another young man in his living unit, a simple hair cut becomes a forum to profit by some fatherly advice.

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"If we didn't share their lives with them, we wouldn't be able to make the impact that we do because we can teach them to deal with a situation because we know the situation. We're right there with them when it happens."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"You're not listening to what I'm saying. If they need a haircut, that's something I can do for them. And something that they really appreciate. And it also provides me a way to have a captive audience, too."

NATUARL SOUND - ANDY:
"He does wrong and you don't?"

KIVI:
"That's right."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"Kivi, listen to yourself. You don't think you can make an improvement in the way you do it. Once I start a haircut, I can say what I need to say to him, then, because I've got him."

KIVI:
"For real?"

JOSHUA:
"This place, it's sketched in my brain. I will never forget this place because it's part of what has helped me change. Coming here has changed my life a lot, I mean. Almost two years in here of my teenage life. I won't be able to go back and change those years. I won't be able to go back and have those fun times I missed. While I was here, I've learned a lot of stuff. The stuff that I've learned, I can actually say is going to help me out in life."

ANDY BROUGHTON:
"The kids that commit these kinds of crimes. I think that somebody spending that time in there life is missing. They fill it with music; they fill it with that video game, or that movie. They fill it with anything else that influences them. Because we are going to be influenced by something in our life. If we just reach a hand out and influence each other and try to influence each other or another young person, then that's what will win over. Because people will influence more than those other things, and that's what I believe."

KIVI:
"We will now take your questions."

NARRATOR:
Broughton's approach has worked. Of the 85 young men who have come through Broughton's program in seven years, only ten have gotten in trouble again... that 12% recidivism rate compares with 50% for most other youth offenders.

KIVI:
"What made me do those bad things, like hanging around with my friends and smoking marijuana, I wanted to fit in with the crowd and I thought if I was different - no one would like me."

NARRATOR:
Inside the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, I'm Larry Clamage reporting.