None — In October 2010, Eyewitness News' cameras were the first to show viewers inside the Reality Program, which is the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office's version of "Scared Straight."
Last fall, the A&E network went inside and captured then-detention Sgt. Nina Garrett and troubled teen Jose Hidalgno, whose father died from a life of crime.
"When Nina said, 'Do you want to be like your dad?' That's when I started getting emotional and crying," Hidalgno said.
He said: "It was a huge impact on me. It was time to change."
Hidalgno, now 16, said he left drugs and crime behind and works every day after school.
Garrett, who has since left the sheriff's office, is the restaurant manager who hired him.
"I challenged him," Garrett said. "Every day, I had something for him to do to make sure he could show me he was committed to making that change."
Garrett added: "For him to say, 'You guys are going to give me a chance. Nobody has given me a chance before,' with tears in his eyes -- I knew that was coming from his heart."
Garrett said her heart is in helping children, because she understands.
"Growing up without parents and raising my younger siblings at the age of 19 -- so the experience that I have is everything I've been through that allows me to connect with them," she said.
"I look up to her," Hidalgno said. "She's my role model."
Hidalgno said things are better in every way -- at work, home and school.
"A lot of peers admire me because of the things that I am doing," he said. "I'm a role model to them. I feel good. I'm doing something good."
WSOC
