released. we ve been working on a program called future soldier program. essentially what it would do, it would identify offenders in our population who would qualify to be a future soldier. the idea is to be able to release them directly from the facility into the military service without there being any delay, without there being any community transition delay in place. patience is key for staff in order to turn troubled kids around. we had, for example, a couple offenders a while back, they would act like they was committing suicide and everything else. we went in on them and they re really not committing suicide, they re trying to hurt staff. you don t want to see it, but it does happen. the individuals who choose to work here and who stay, who stick it out through the difficult times of wking with the adolescents are people that i say, if they can do this job, they can do any job. because this job will challenge everything about you. for some kids, it takes more than o
i know. keep it together. if she can t get here today, he ll go back into his unit. and just go back to being one of the juvenile offenders until his family gets here. try to get ahold of his parent. find out what she s going to do, what her plans are. and then communicate that back to either me or the superintendent so we can make a plan. all right? okay. how do you feel about that? i m cool with it. she ll be here, don t you think, today? yeah. all right. good. let s make this thing happen then. okay. i will get your clothes. i ll have you change. sometimes it can be a couple days before they can get a ride. just stay right here. okay. coming up more frustration for charles taylor and the pendleton staff. she must have turned it off. it went straight to voicemail. meanwhile, michael brehm fears retribution from his cellmates. i ve seen a guy who was scheduled to go home in three days and somebody put a shank in his bed. he didn t get out for anot
it s been nearly an hour since michael brehm took his best shot at convincing the administrative review committee he should be released from pendleton. this decision makes a difference to the community. it s not just ours. we do second-guess ourselves at times. and have a heart for the offender, but we can t let that be the deciding factor. it can t be. at the ripe age of 18, brehm has spent a total of two years behind bars. hopefully people don t come here. this is the one place they don t want to go. okay, michael. do you have any questions for
this pretty much decides my freedom. program director chris blessinger cuts to the core of michael s problems. you and i have had conversations before. and one of those conversations has been about the seriousness, about the extensive history that you have using substances. right. if you look back on a lot of your charges, a lot of those charges were when you were high or when you were drunk. so what is going to be different this time when you get out? i have a lot more access to things when i get out like groups. i m going to go to aa and na meetings. i m really going to try my hardest. like i said, i am an adult now. i really have to change. and if i continue this, then i m going to be dead or i m going to be in a wheelchair. and that scares me, it really does.
wrong people or whatever, you re 18 years old now. all right? so all of that doesn t matter anymore. for us, as the administrative review committee, we have the opportunity then to sit back and look at everything that s happened over the course of months or years that the offender has been here. and from that make the right decision. are we always right? no. if there are no further questions, we will take a vote of the administrative review committee on recommendation that michael be promoted to the release phase. i agree. i agree. congratulations, you have your promotion. thank you. you have no idea how much this means to me. i feel like 1,000 pounds have been lifted off of my shoulders. i feel really good. i mean, i haven t had this good of a feeling in a in seven months. in two weeks, michael brehm will be allowed to leave. but not even that is a guarantee of freedom.