EX-CON DOCTOR TRIES TO SAVE OTHERS' FUTURES

ASHEBORO - Donald Pritt is a 70-year-old retired doctor and published author.

He's also an ex-convict who spent 34 months in federal prison for
bankruptcy fraud.

On Wednesday, Pritt made a visit in Asheboro at The Learning Center
alternative school for at-risk sixth-through ninth-graders, hoping that he
might say something, anything, that might change the future of some of the
students there.

"You can't allow your peers to push you to do drugs," he told the young
people at the school. "You are flirting with russian roulette if you do and
you could die."

Pritt said that his experiences in prison gave him the desire to help teens
and young adults.

"My lecture tries to zero in on why our kids are in these alternative
schools," he said. "I try to tell them that if they run with the wrong
crowd, they can end up in prison."

Pritt, who lives in West Virginia, has spent most of his time since his May
2002 release from prison traveling to middle and high schools across the
South talking to teenagers about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and violence.

"This is, I hope, an atomic bomb lecture for these kids," Pritt said. "I
look these kids straight in the face and tell them about my life. I try to
make them curious and then hold them by taking myself to their level and
then peaking their interest."

Pritt gladly spends all of his time and money going to these schools on the
chance that one person may be affected by his message.

"You ask yourself 'how many people can I reach?' " he said. "I want to be
able to reach everybody and I'm looking for new ways every day to do it.

"I love these kids and all I want to do is make a difference."

Pritt showed the students a video of a youth named Tony who got into
trouble for dealing drugs and armed robbery. Tony, who carried a gun for
protection, said his own father was stabbed to death over a drug deal when
Tony was a very small child. Now he is serving time and has a child of his
own. Tony is 15 years old.

In the video, when Pritt asked Tony if he wanted to change his life, Tony
said he wanted to, but didn't think he could. The advice Tony gave kids
watching the video?

"Don't get caught."

"The videos are about kids who are just like the ones I am trying to
reach," Pritt said. "I tell them stories of horror and I try to get them to
read between the lines.

"It starts out with behavior problems for a lot of these kids. They have
too much time on their hands and it's easy for them to get into trouble."

While incarcerated, Pritt said he asked so many questions of other inmates
he actually put his life at risk.

"I had to be put in solitary confinement for my own protection," he said,
"but I wouldn't stop asking questions.

"I needed to know why these guys were serving time so I could help others
when I got out. I would look out the window on visitation day and see
little children brought into the prisons to see their fathers, uncles, and
brothers and those guys told me to do whatever I could to keep other kids
out of prison."

Wearing handcuffs, Pritt warned the kids in attendance of the risks they
take by just being a part of the wrong crowd. He told of stories of kids
being taken away in handcuffs as a result of hanging out with the wrong
people at the wrong time.

"How many of you have ever had a beer?" Pritt asked. "How many have had
whiskey? Or smoked pot? Or crack?"

More than half of the students polled Tuesday answered yes to those questions.

To these students Pritt emphasized choice - right or wrong - and the end
results of the choices they make.

He showed them a piece of soap, the size of an ice cube, noting if the
sample were crack cocaine, it would equal 20 years in prison.

"I realized that these guys just won't see the consequences of what actions
they take unless I tell them," said Pritt. "Losing everything and going to
prison just isn't smart.

"You can put this much cocaine in your pocket, but can you put 20 years of
your life in the same place?

"The bottom line? Prison steals time."

Pritt is now trying to get the parents of the youth he sees to get involved
in the program.

"I'm asking the parents to come to the program as a reinforcement of what I
say," he said. "It helps if the message is carried over into the home.
There is nothing stronger than the truth."