�JUVENILE CORRECTIONS: THE LOST CHILDREN BEHIND BARS,� ON ABC NEWS� �PRIMETIME�

Chris Cuomo Goes Insides a Juvenile Corrections Center and Meets Troubled Teens Trying to Change Their Ways, on �Primetime,� August 3 on ABC

They start out like most kids � innocent, loving and eager to please -- until something goes terribly wrong. Across the country, more than 100,000 troubled teens are locked up in juvenile correction facilities. In an hour-long �Primetime� report, Chris Cuomo goes inside two juvenile facilities near Phoenix, AZ, and meets a group of kids at a critical turning point � they have one last shot to either change their ways or face the prospect of doing time in an adult prison. �Primetime� was granted unprecedented access in Arizona�s system for juveniles and spent nearly six months following these teens� journey in and out of the system. Along the way, they share their shame, their secrets and their dreams. They show their pride and promise. �Primetime� checks back with the kids a year later to see what life is like now that they are out. The report airs THURSDAY, AUGUST 3 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. �Primetime� revisits the kids to update and expand an hour which originally aired in August 3, 2005.

From the outside, Adobe Mountain School for boys and Black Canyon School for girls look like prisons. But they are actually �safe schools,� where the purpose is to reform, not to punish. The schools house kids between the ages of 12 and 17 for whom extensive probation hasn�t worked. Here they have the opportunity to further their education and address the underlying causes of their problems. Still, conditions inside are rough, and kids with short fuses can sometimes explode in violence. Cuomo spends a night in each facility for a view of the harsh life on the inside.

Among the kids Cuomo meets is Jerilyn, 17, who has a dark secret she shares about the horrible crime that brought her to Black Canyon. After undergoing years of intensive therapy and now about to be released, Jerilyn talks about returning to society and trying to help her ill mother. Jesse, 17, is in Adobe for Manslaughter 2. Once a promising student who hoped to attend an Ivy League college, he�s now locked up after shooting a relative to death. He tells Cuomo why he finally thinks he�s on the right track. And Casey, 16, is serving time for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, plus aggravated assault. She�s also pregnant and hoping she�ll be released so she can raise her baby.

�Treatment is the answer. These, these are children, and if we can train them to� to do different, to live differently, then they�ll be productive citizens, and that�s, that�s our goal,� Suzanne LaRue, the superintendent at Black Canyon, tells Cuomo. But how has the treatment worked for them so far? �Primetime� flashes forward 11 months to see how things have changed for these kids. Most have been released or are on their way, and life on the outside has many interesting outcomes.

DIANE SAWYER, CHRIS CUOMO, CYNTHIA McFADDEN and JOHN QUI�ONES are the anchors of �Primetime.� DAVID SLOAN is the executive producer.