GIRLS CORRECTIONAL CENTER TRIES TO MEND THOSE WHO BROKE LAW

It's a scene that could be any high school's lunch hour. In a large
cafeteria, several dozen teen-age girls laugh loudly. Others comb their
friends' hair. Simultaneous conversations flow into one another, creating a
high-pitched din.

When campus Director Melissa Aaron walks in, the young women flock to her,
each trumpeting her name.

"Hello, Ms. Aaron."

"Hi, Ms. A."

The 123 girls who live on campus are white, black, Latina and Asian. They
are as young as 12 and as old as 19. Some come from wealthy families,
although most have more modest, even impoverished, backgrounds.

But all have been sentenced to the Macon Youth Development Campus for a
reason - they committed a crime.

The YDC is one of two long-term, all-female facilities in Georgia, both run
by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

The 5-acre campus on Riggins Mill Road is filled with fairly modern looking
buildings. The cobblestone paths in the courtyard are lined with trees. The
campus is equipped with a gymnasium, a clinic, a cafeteria, several dorms
and classrooms - and police guards and security checks and razor-wire fencing.

Melissa Aaron has been working at the campus for 17 years. She's worked in
juvenile justice for 22. In October, she was made director of the YDC.

"It reminds you of being on a college campus or a boarding school," Aaron
said. "Not a prison."

The YDC sits right next door to the Macon Regional Youth Detention Center -
a much more stark facility that houses youth offenders for much shorter
lengths of time. That, Aaron said, is more like a jail. The YDC is more
like a school.

The look of the campus, by design, is intended to give the young women
confidence and structure. Officials hope, one day, each of the juvenile
offenders at the YDC will return to society with a greater ability to live
her life independently, without returning for another round through the
legal system.

School Time

The primary focus of the YDC is education. Every student is required to
take classes for 330 minutes a day - the state requirement for any school.
Some of the students have taken the test of general educational
development, passed their GED and are taking college classes. Others are
enrolled in vocational schools, studying cosmetology or horticulture. Still
others need remedial education. They are barely on a third-grade level.

"Most of the kids come to us, and they're behind in school," Aaron said.
"We try to get them raised in level, but it depends on how long they stay
here."

Girls are sentenced to the YDC for from six months to five years. Some of
the violent offenders - especially the older ones - will leave the facility
when they turn 21. Then, they will be sent to state prison for the
remainder of their sentence.

"For many of those, it happens around their birthday," Aaron said. "It's sad."

The school on campus includes four vocational teachers, one GED teacher, 13
academic teachers as well as a principal, aides, clerks and counselors. All
classes adhere to Department of Education standards, and all the teachers
are state-certified.

Aaron said most of the academic classes are remedial, but the vocational
classes are part of Central Georgia Technical College. In order to be
accepted to the YDC's cosmetology school, for example, students must pass
the entrance exam and qualify. Then, when they leave the YDC, they can
continue classes at the Central Georgia Tech campus without having to re-apply.

Leslie, an 18-year-old Atlanta resident, has been at the YDC since June
2000. She completed her GED eight months ago and takes online classes at
Central Georgia Tech. She is also enrolled at the YDC cosmetology school.

Aaron asks Leslie why she didn't complete school on her own.

"I wasn't in school," she said.

"Were you working?" Aaron asked.

"I was selling drugs," Leslie responded.

Leslie - a petite white female with a bobbed haircut and round glasses on
her round face - explains how she was involved with some high-level drug
dealers in Atlanta. She speaks confidently and in a matter-of-fact tone
when she discusses how she often feared for her life.

"I was not just a little kid selling drugs," she said. "I was big time. I
had to watch my back constantly."

When Leslie is released, in June, she hopes to finish college and raise her
son. He's 21 months old and in foster care.

LaTonya, a 17-year-old from Albany, is also enrolled in cosmetology
classes. She began the cosmetology program when she first arrived a year
ago. After LaTonya is released in April, she will complete her classes at
Albany Tech, she said. LaTonya hopes to stay out of trouble.

"They're helping me out," she says of the YDC staff.

LaTonya was detained for aggravated assault.

Elaine Walker, the cosmetology teacher, defends her student.

"She's one of my good students," Walker said. "She's a good girl. She just
made a mistake."

Out Of Focus

The students at YDC are children and must be treated as such.

Still, each and every one has committed a crime.

Occasionally, the students get "out of focus," Aaron said.

When the young women act up, shout, scream and get into fights - when they
refuse to listen to their teachers, the director or the facility guards -
Aaron refers to their actions as "out of focus."

A special section of campus - developed just since Aaron took over as
director - is called the "closed unit." There, about 10 percent of the YDC
population is held separately. They have become aggressive and have proven
they cannot eat and live with other students, Aaron said.

Ideally, everyone in the closed unit will return to the general population
in a matter of weeks. Often, however, the same students return to the
closed unit repeatedly.

The closed unit is louder and has an air of chaos. Unlike other areas of
campus, the young women are not as likely to listen to their teachers.

One student in the closed unit walks up to Aaron as soon as she walks in.
She wants to talk. It is obvious something is troubling her.

Aaron explains to the student that now is not the time. She should speak to
a counselor. But the young woman is relentless. She is frustrated and
cannot understand why Aaron will not devote all her time right away.

Aaron, in a patient and caring voice, repeats to the young woman that she
wants to talk, but not now. The girl does not give up her pleading until
Aaron has left the room.

Sometimes, the students are even more adamant, yelling and screaming
profanities. They, likewise, must be treated in a professional manner,
Aaron said.

Asked if she ever loses her temper, Aaron gives a quick answer.

"Never," she said.

"Now, I get angry," she explained further. "But the kids have never seen me
get unprofessional."

Scars For A Lifetime

In past years, the YDC has utilized several part-time psychiatrists. In
April, a new full-time child psychiatrist was hired.

When Dr. Debra Osborne arrived, 92 percent of the students were on some
sort of medication. Previous doctors, who were not constantly on campus,
treated too many cases with medication, she said. Now, only 44 percent
receive psychotropic drugs.

The need for psychiatric treatment is tremendous, Osborne said. Many of the
young women suffer from depression, attention-deficit disorder, psychosis,
bi-polar disorder and other serious ailments. Quite a few, because of their
disturbing pasts, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I was here for 52 days in a row before I saw my first student who said she
was not sexually abused," Osborne said. "It's a pretty devastating statistic."

It's one of the issues that makes an all-female center unusual.

Aaron said most of the students have no idea how to interact with men. Nor
do they know anything about positive male role models. As many as 80
percent were abused and most of those knew their abuser well.

Now, Aaron said, the young women have a backward concept of sexuality. They
see a female teacher in a friendly conversation with a male guard and
assume sex is involved. They talk with male teachers coyly, thinking
sexuality is the only way to ask a man for help. Some do not trust men at all.

When a student becomes out of focus, these attitudes can present a real
dilemma, Aaron said. She worries about the psychiatric results when a male
guard subdues a female student.

Psychiatrists and counselors have another function that is often just as
great as healing old wounds. They must help train the women to live
independently.

Aaron said that, for many of the students, the YDC is the only place they
have ever lived where they can get food, sleep and medical treatment
regularly. For most, even those with the most hardened attitudes, the idea
of leaving the YDC causes tremendous anxiety.

Even among the ideal students, as the time for their departure nears, they
suddenly seem to act up or commit some indiscretion that prevents them from
leaving, Aaron said.

Asked about the percentage of students who commit more crimes after their
release, Aaron became visibly saddened.

"It's high," she said. "It's right around 70 percent. But we feel that's
because the kids go home, and they don't have the structure. Here, people
care if they eat, take their medication, go to school."