SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNSELOR PUSHES JAIL INMATES TO MAKE THE CHANGE

An inmate new to cell block 3C doesn't remember the last time he cried.

He arrives numb and addicted to crack cocaine, speed or just old-fashioned
booze -- addicted enough to steal, beat, even kill for a high.

He won't open up much to Roger Hopper at first -- no matter how tough the
42-year-old Gateway counselor tries to be. Especially if the inmate's young
and ordered by court to be in the substance abuse program at Chatham County
jail.

He'll think he doesn't need to write down his life story or keep a daily
journal like Hopper tells him to.

Who needs Hopper's rules against sleeping during class and his slogans like
"Accept the addiction. Change the behavior?" Who needs change?

Then comes the first break-through, around week two or three in the
six-week program. Maybe it happens as one did last week, while Hopper led a
group session.

An inmate, not used to opening up, cried as he told how his mother taught
him to cook crack when he was 14.

The worst part is that cooking crack with Mom once seemed normal in the
lives of the inmates in Hopper's program. It hardly warranted tears.

Hopper doesn't know for certain what made the inmate "ready to take it to
the pain"-- one of Hopper's slogans.

Perhaps it was because Hopper had kicked a guy out of the program the day
before for not participating.

Or maybe the meltdown was prompted by Hopper's reality therapy -- his
reminders that crack leads only to jail, the mental ward or death.

"If you can break them down to start feeling some pain, it happens," Hopper
said. "They've been numbing their feelings with drugs and alcohol. Here
they don't have access to it."

After making it through the substance abuse program Hopper manages, after
singing "Amazing Grace" with the group of about 50 at graduation and
getting a certificate, an inmate might enroll in other special jail cell
blocks like the GED or chaplain's program.

Or he might return to the regular part of the jail.

Eventually he'll be released.

If he returns to the same playground, as Hopper calls it, and doesn't
attend Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, chances are he'll be
back on cell block 3C.

He'll again sit in Hopper's group, angry and lashing out, as Hopper has him
recite AA's serenity prayer.

"God grant me the serenity...."

There will be another cycle, another breakthrough, another test on the
12-step program, another graduation.

Hopper again will coach the inmate to take it to the pain, make the change
- -- pushing for the slogans to finally become life-saving solutions.