“The belief that even ‘the worst of the worst’ are students who can take their lives apart and become their own therapists, their own parents, really; who can go through emotional and spiritual experiences that will alter the trajectory of their lives, makes the TYC one of the most progressive youth commissions in the country.”

An intense degree of self-examination is required of juvenile criminals in the TYC system. Real change can only be accomplished from within. Therapy programs such as COG are only as effective as the students’ willingness to face themselves

“‘Life stories.’ ‘Empathy.’ ‘Thinking errors.’ It turns out that human behavior and the programs designed to alter it are inextricably tied to language.”

COG greatly emphasizes talking through the past. Most of the students have built a wall around painful experiences that protects them but also prevents them from getting beyond it. Articulating the traumatic experience allows the students to tell a new story of their future lives.

“The boys entering Capital Offenders are about to become archaeologists of the self, slowly and methodically sifting through their own lives.”

Those who do not understand the past are doomed to repeat it. This adage is generally applied to nations rather than to individuals. However, the concept holds true for COG students: They must delve into their own pasts in painstaking detail to understand them and avoid repeating their mistakes.