CNN: Teen offenders find a future in Missouri

[Heidi]

updated 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

(CNN) -- Getting arrested for stealing cars after his 16th birthday may be the best thing that ever happened to Terrence Barkley.

It got him out of gangs and headed to college.

While in one of Missouri's juvenile facilities, Barkley became editor of its student newspaper, captain of the football team and made the honor roll.

"I wanted something different for myself or I'd end up in Kansas City doing nothing. I knew I could do something," said Barkley, who is the first in his family to go to college.

Now he's a sophomore studying criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri.

Barkley wasn't scared straight. He wasn't packed away in a crowded facility with steel bars and razor wire. He wasn't under the constant guard of uniformed officers with billy clubs or locked down with hundreds of other juveniles.

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[FSogol]

1. Good article. Thanks. n/t