Justice. Theyre often more likely to end up back in the court system. Reporter but dont communities need to be protected from offending kids . America tonights Lisa Fletcher. Clamping down on offending teens but does it work . Thanks for joining us, im joie chen. In the latest count of juvenile justice, some 90,000 were housed throughout the country. One state maine has made a surprising adjustment and has seen a big impact on its juvenile justice program. America tonights lynch explains whats made a difference. Go ahead and get ready guys. Reporter for first time in his life, 18yearold david chessbro is on target. Just years ago, chessbro was traveling a different path. I was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. That same night bad decisions nearly cost a friend his life. We were drinking at in my garage at my house. I went upstairs for a few hours and when i came back down my friend was on the ground, seizing and foaming at the mouth. And he was 15. And ambulance rescued his friend and Police Arrested david. The Court Ordered him into a unique program in maine. Diversion to assets. Its been called a major turning point in how to deal with youth offenders. Diversion to assets is a partnership between law enforcement, the department of corrections and the community, to give kids who have been involved in everything from drugs and alcohol, to assault, an option to being locked up. Since it began in 2008, nearly 400 kids have gone through the program. Ryan n neeland is a program coordinator. Once kids get into the court system theyre often more likely to end up back in the court system. Reporter so you said the program is to protect kids from the courts. But dont communities need to be protected from offending kids . The idea is, were dealing with recidivism. It takes more time to create an intervention plan and address the issues that come up during our plan making process. Ultimately it is a time and money safer fo saver for people. It would protect the community more. About 80 of unifor juvenile offenders, the recidivism is about 8 , in fact the state is actually closing a youth detention facility because of a drop in inmates that is in part attributed to the success of this program. I wasnt completely open to it at first. I was skeptical. I was like is this a step to jail . Are they going to evaluate me, see how see if i cant change because thats what i was scared of. I didnt have any faith in myself changing. Did ryan help you gain that faith in yourself . He helped me see positivity and stuff. Hes like i can see that youre not as bad as this record says you are. And it helped me like find that i wasnt, and it was awesome. So far neland has shepherded, 40 of his program in waterville. Part of his success is sleuthing, figuring out what sparks a kid and then tapping into it. For david. Its archery and music. Neeland gave limb a chance to teach both. It made me happy see kids open their abilities they didnt even know they had. Open, it was awesome. I think it just illuminates a piece of them. And kind of theyre so used to being punished often that they are taken aback as to, i got in trouble and youre giving me fun things to do . Whats going on here . So its a rereorienting of the mind and thought process behind traditional punishment. What about it, its liberal maine, rose colored glasses giving him fun thoings d things, that cant work. Our prisons are overstuffed compared to the rest of the world. Its extremely expensive. The department of corrections is funding this because they are looking for solutions. Reporter a 2011 report by the baltimore based annie e. Casey fund, notes that annually, a year of detention can cost taxpayers nearly 90,000 with recidivism pushing 80 . Something not lost on 18yearolds katies mom. There is not much chance for them to get out. They are going to follow that, going back to court. Katies admittedly a tough kid, rarely without her share of trouble. The final straw for her school when she punched another student. Given a choice her mom put her into diversion to assets in february 2014. You sound like youre a tough kid, you are not caring about what people think. Did the way you were treated in this program sort of soften you . Yeah, i thought i was getting punished, going to a program and getting in trouble. What did it turn out to be . Somebody helping you, talking to you, understanding. For katie help includes weekly counseling, education. Just ignore those and do and guitar lessons from a Generous Community musician. Prevention and intervention takes time. We create a package together, our intervention plan be executed and then no juvenile record. A record that can prevent military enlistment, access to Financial Aid and in some states like maine, even employment. Kids in this program get a chance to keep their records clean. Practice switching but there are rules and if you mess up and reoffend, youre out of diversion to assets, and in to the court system. Have there been some failures . There is sometimes reoffense. And i try to make it very clear at the beginning, if you reoffend, this gift of diversion may disappear. Reporter but for the kids who comply and statistically thats most of them, the rewards are great. So david could you have imagined two or three years down the road where you are now . I never saw it coming. I thought i was i was just stuck. Like i was just stuck in that position of oh, whats the next part of my life that im going to mess up or something like, im going to hurt my mom next or my brother or somebody else in my family besides myself. Reporter give me the two versions of david. David without this program where does he end up, david with this program where does he end up . If i didnt have this program right now i would be in jail, and with this program, its positive, up hill from here. Reporter youre fundamentally changing the trajectory of these kids lives. I hope so. I hope so. Ultimately it is their decision to go with me or not. Hopefully we can keep Going Forward and affect environmentally the culture of punishment into something thats a little more understanding, and less black and white. Where youve done something wrong, youre going to be punished, puck up this trash on the side of the road which doesnt teach you anything, lets do something different. America tonights Lisa Fletcher is here now. Lisa these have to be the easy cases right . These are the kids who probably just would have gotten better anyway right . Some, but not all. When the program started out they were taking cases that were easier but what they have found out is this works. They have been taking more and more challenging cases and ryan is telling us right now they are taking really challenged kids. It is working for them. As the success of the program escalates so do the level of trouble with the kids. With you say trouble, trouble at home trouble with circumstances or what . All of the above actually. In some of these cases its a little misleading, theyre not so bad, playing around with drugs and alcohol, kids do that. But what you dont see is things behind the scenes. All of these kids had very serious issues at home. For example one of the kids has a drug addicted mother who is this and out of rehab. The other her father was in prison for five years. And at that point, especially a vulnerable 13 or 14yearold. What happens if the kid is not successful does not respond to this kind of work . When they start, they say this is a gift, you have to buy in, its your choice and if you screw up youre out and probably ending up in juvie. These kids dont just do archery, and play, there is a whole program they are involved in, community service. Maine is a, how shall we say warm place in many ways but why hasnt this worked in other states . Have they tried it . Some places have. Maine is unique in that they have really invested a lot of time, it requires time and ryan neeland on the front end. Get their trust and confidence and find someone in the community that will help these kids in the area of interest. A lot of work on the front end. Even with Police Officers they also participate in this. So if everybody agrees to participate a lot at the beginning it really seems to be paying off at the end. America tonights Lisa Fletcher. Next, prison break, why the feds are setting thousands of inmates free early. Later, save our ship. And on america tonights website now, who is getting ripped off now . Find out at aljazeera. Com americatonight. In our fast forward segment, doing the time. Fate sealed by mandatory minimum sentences. But long prison sentences are increasingly being challenged, as hard time for relatively minor convictions is questioned. America tonights sarah hoye now on the real life impact of sentencing guidelines and the real families who ends up suffering there them. Two u. S. Martial marshals knn their door. Slammed me on the ground. The garrison twins, 25 years old at the time had plans to attend law school together. Plans that came to an abrupt end. They put them in a conspiracy, they made them responsible of a whole table of drugs, marijuana, guns, bullets. Federal agents told lawrence and la mont that a man they knew through his auto job had identified them as being part of a multistate drug ring. The gairns denied. Did you partake in a multistate drug conspiracy . No, my brother and i never did. Are you innocent . Yes, we are. Although no drugs were found in their possession and no drug money recovered, lawrence and la mopt werlontlamont were found g. La mont went to ohio for 19 years, the law that sent her sons to prison for long terms grew out of the crack epidemic that hit urban centers like washington, d. C. In the 1980s. In response, Congress Passed the antidrug abuse act in 1986. The law set mandatory minimum drug sentences of five years of possessing five grams of crack cocaine. The same sentence someone caught trafficking 500 grams of powdered cokay would receive. Fast forward now to what might be a major turn around. The federal prison system is set to launch the largest Early Release ever, 6,000 inmates will be released in a four day period the end of this month. The official line is it will be releasing overcrowded prisons, president obama initiated a system earlier this year end to mandatory minimums. Next the search to a life saver, could an American Ship be headed for its final join . And tapped out, correspondent michael okwu in an incredible journey across the golden state, what the drought really means to californians from sea to just scraping by. A special report thursday on america tonight. Movers and shakers. We will be able to see change. Gripping. Inspiring. Entertaining. Talk to al jazeera. Saturday, 6 00 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. The only way to get better is to challenge yourself, and thats what were doing at xfinity. We are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. And this includes our commitment to being on time. Every time. Thats why if were ever late for an appointment, well credit your account 20. Its our promise to you. Were doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. Because we should fit into your life. Not the other way around. I just had a horrible nightmare. My companys entire network went down, and i was home in bed, unaware. But that would never happen. Comcast business monitors my Companys Network 24 hours a day and calls and emails me if something, like this scary storm, takes it offline. So i can rest easy. What. You dont have a desk bed . Dont be left in the dark. Get proactive alerts 24 7. Comcast business. Built for business. Long before wed heard of rose and jack and their titanic story of love on the high seas, the heroine was just as captivating extraordinary and noble and as we found out early this year her final chapter has yet to be written. Even now, her beauty faded her engines stilled, you can see why theres never been an ocean liner quite as grand as the ss United States. Docked at philadelphias pier 82 on the Delaware River shes hard to miss. Dan mcsweeney wasnt even looking for her the first time he stopped by but she stopped him in his tracks. I was driving through philadelphia and something impelled me to look to the left and as i did i saw the stacks of the ship. You knew what it was . I immediately recognized the stacks, it was iconic. So much about the ss United States, her size, 9 noise feet, five blocks long, nearly the height of the empire state building. The United States is out to to recapture the blue ribbon of the atlantic. To this day she holds the passenger record for crossing the atlantic. And 1952 a hull constructed almost entirely out of a space age material. Entirely of aluminum. Superstructure is aluminum. No russ, solid, under the paint its perfect condition. Its no problem with painting. Mcsweeney isnt the first one to fall for this ship. That was William Francis gibbs who launched the idea in 1916 and then spent almost 40 years working to build the ship. Susan gibbs is his granddaughter. Im particularly fond of this picture because it shows my grandfather gazing at the moment of the ships launch. The moment when William Gibbs ship superseded the story of that other luxury ocean liner. Theres the inevitable comparison to the titanic. Its from the same time. Our ship is the most famous ship that didnt sink. In her memories, gibbs grandfather was a reserved, dry figure. He died when she was only five but in combing through his old letters susan gibbs found william gibs was a man determined to build a ship faster, safer than any, never using wood, which could cause a fire. You cant set her on fire you cant sink her and you cant catch her. He was maniacal about safety on the vessel. And he was passionate about his dream. He would tell reporters he loved this ship more than his wife, more than life itself. There is a picture on the wall of my home here in which he is standing on the shore parkway of brooklyn just gazing at his ship returning from one of her transatlantic runs. Woe do it routinely it was a love story. But it took more than love to bring gibbs dream to life. Two world wars, became cattle catalysts. He was appealing to their sense of patriotism. He was absolutely appealing to that and to National Self interest. It was a height of the cold war. The pentagon funded twothirds of the cost of this vessel. She was ready. She was designed to be quickly converted into a troop transport for a full division. She will be capable of transporting a full army division, 10,000 miles without stopping for fuel water or food. But the ship was never needed for military duty. Instead the ss United States lived out her career carrying out the american dream. It was like something had broken from manhattan. Were coming up to the great spaces of the ship, the first class ball room. Over a million passengers celebrities, political leaders, stars of their day boarded what became moan as americas flagship. There was a big element of glamor in the vessel. Because she was so large and because she took the speed record on her Maiden Voyage she became osymbol. For many less celebrated travelers she became the gateway to the new world. After ellis island was shut down, this became an immigrant processing people. A lot of people including my own father came to america in connection with the ss United States. Mcsweeneys father came aboard as a steward, serving the first class passengers for 17 years through her final crossing in 1969. Did 800 transatlantic crossings. Never had a mishap, was always on time. The antititanic. But what the eye bergz didn t accomplish, the airplane did. Today the ship is an aging curiosity, viewed mostly from a distance. I understand people come around just to look at her. Thats true. There is people that stop at the gate and just gaze like i did all those years ago. And it is because she is amazing. But even keeping her parked here is shockingly expensive. 60,000 a month. Thats with no repairs. Her caretakers figure it would take 1 billion to put her back on the seas. At some point, soon they admit, the only option might be to sell her. For salvage. There is a chance the ship could be scrapped. Scrapped . Scrapped. Ripped apart . Recycled basically, turned into razor blades. That would break your hard. It would break my heart. It is the last of its kind. It is the last great ocean liner. It bears the name, United States. It would be tragic really, it would be tragic. We cant get her back if that happens. The trick now is to find a developer, one with a vision to see the ship as 500,000 square feet of floating waterfront property. Most likely in new york, her home port. What would it be like to have her in the shadow of the statue of liberty . I think it would be amazing. New york city is a great place for this ship to return to. It saime sailed from new york, d just like the statue of liberty it is a sign of the greatness of the country. It is, susan gibbs says, the last voyage the ship herself longs to take. She still has that incredible strength. The ship sitting there held fast by these bright blue lines, you get the sense, im ready to go somewhere. Sheet ready tshes ready to bri. Heshe wont even be capable f staying at the dock without a life line. Come back well have more of america tonight, tomorrow. When i met daisy, it was the best day of my life. When my past caught up with me and made us all pay the price. The social worker said, im gonna have to take the baby. They took my family. I dont know how im gonna do it but. I need another lawyer. Youre gonna have to kill me to take my child. Im ali velshi. On target tonight need for speed. The nationwide broadband battle, leaving customers caught in the middle. Plus solar oil. How the dirty job of drilling for crude could go green. The battle for Economic Prosperity in the 21st century has convinced Many American cities that they will be left in the dust if they dont offer businesses and entrepreneurs