"The highly structured and disciplined life at IMPACT gives these young men a chance to stop, look at their lives and change direction," Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis said. "They are given the opportunity to succeed. They learn the value of hard work, the importance of community and have a chance to complete their high school degree."

IMPACT has a 180-bed boot camp near Hoffman and a 180-bed boot camp near Morganton. Judges send males, ages 16 to 30, to boot camp as a condition of probation. Last year, 933 trainees completed the program.

Hard work has been a hallmark of the boot camp. Teams of trainees cleaned and painted schools and government buildings and worked on projects that helped many public agencies in the last year. They worked a total of 404,335 hours. At the minimum wage of $4.75 per hour that labor would have cost public agencies $ 1,920,591.

Each trainee also spends more than 100 hours in the classroom while at IMPACT. Community college instructors lead adult education and high school equivalency test preparation classes. There were 178 trainees who passed the test and received their General Equivalency Diploma last year.

"We put trainees in a stressful situation and require them to react to it," said John Taylor, IMPACT commandant. "The meat of the program is what they learn about themselves so that they go home prepared to deal with the problems they haven’t confronted well in the past."

Next year, IMPACT will open the first boot camp for females in North Carolina.

Trainee recieves certificate during completion ceremony at IMPACT- East.

IMPACT held its 155th graduation ceremony this month presenting 18 trainees with certificates of completion.

Clarence Parks, father of one of the trainees said he can see a big difference in his son, "His whole attitude has changed. He is a lot more respectful, and now, he can actually sit down and have a conversation with me."