While most juvenile facilities provide classroom education, thanks to nurse Katrina Whaley the Mayfield Youth Development Center in Kentucky goes above and beyond the norm by teaching regular health education as well.

"We try to give every single resident the power to change his life when he steps out of these doors.  They have no choice but to live a drug-free and law-abiding life while they're in here, but when they walk out of these doors they have a choice," Whaley said.

Whaley's commitment to offering residents the skills necessary to make the right choices after release has just been recognized by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which named her health education program the 2004 Program of the Year.

By offering a weekly course that emphasizes personal health and decision-making skills, Whaley hopes that the boys at Mayfield will learn to make choices that keep them out of facilities like Mayfield in the future.

"Nurse's Class," as the residents call it, is a comprehensive review of today's health care issues for youth.  The class covers birth control, STDs, smoking, personal hygiene, self-esteem, guns and violence, parenting issues, and chronic care conditions, among other topics.

"We're hoping they'll come to grips with the many factors of criminal behavior.  In the best case scenario, they'll be rehabbed and will grow up to become productive adults," Whaley said.

Because most of the center's residents have serious addiction problems, the program often focuses on the consequences of drugs and alcohol.  In addition to the facility's one-on-one care and optional Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Whaley's program offers residents information about the effects of drugs and alcohol in an academic setting.

"We ask them what kind of life they want to have.  Do you want to be in control of your life or do you want drugs and alcohol to have control of you?" Whaley said.

By emphasizing the tremendous effect drugs and alcohol can have not only on an individual but also on that individual's career, family and friends, Whaley said she hopes to deter residents from relapsing after they are released from the Mayfield Center.

"We want to teach the boys that they have a choice here," Whaley said.  "They can have a good education, a good job and a good family by staying sober, clean, and out of these facilities."

A unique aspect to Whaley's curriculum is its focus on the chronic conditions of current residents.  If a resident has diabetes or acute allergies, all of the residents study how the condition affects the body and how someone with the condition will act.

This increases both the residents' knowledge and acceptance of one another, Whaley said.

Since the Mayfield Youth Development Center, like all of Kentucky's juvenile confinement facilities, is very small, with a maximum of 36 residents, Whaley said she has the freedom to present material in new and inventive ways.

Nine out of 10 health classes use visual aids. By lecturing one day, initiating a dialogue the next, and showing a movie on another day, Whaley said she tries to keep the residents engaged in thinking about their health and making good decisions.

Recently, Whaley showed her students the movie Antwone Fisher, the true story of a young man, born to an unwed mother in prison, who overcame a history of physical and sexual abuse. 

"Through this movie, residents saw that it's possible to talk about their feelings.  Fisher becomes a survivor and not a victim by working through his past verbally," Whaley said.

Whaley also engages residents by having one of them teach the class for a few minutes each week.  This often involves reading an article from Weekly Reader's Current Health 2 magazine and then reporting back on it to the class. 

These reports encourage both the presenter and the other residents to learn from sources other than a teacher or authority figure, Whaley said.

In this vein, Whaley often brings speakers to her class who offer another perspective on health issues.  She said that the local sheriff with his drug-sniffing dog is often a big hit, as are his high-tech eyeglasses that simulate levels of drunkenness. 

"Many of the boys are surprised by what looking through those glasses is like," she said.  "There's a big difference between what you notice after one or two drinks."

A recent visitor from the community also made a big impression on the youth in Whaley's class.  In August, a man who had shot himself in the face while high on methamphetamines came to share his experience.

"The boys were very moved by the story," Whaley said.  "They often think 'That happened to somebody else, but won't happen to me.' But after hearing personal stories like this one, they can start to doubt that."

Whaley encourages residents to rethink their outlook on life.  By bringing them to a local prison to speak with current inmates as part of the class, she offers these young men a wake up call. 

"These inmates were in juvenile facilities 10 or 15 years ago.  They tell our residents not to end up where they are," she said. 

While Whaley insists that this is not a scare tactic, she hopes the visits will help residents avoid ending up in confinement as adults by realizing that they have a chance to change now.

"Freedom is the ability to manage your own life," Whaley said, quoting one of her favorite sayings. "There's no freedom if you're a member of a gang, or if you're controlled by drugs and alcohol.  We do the best we can to give them every advantage possible.  We tell them they've got a choice."

The Mayfield Youth Development Center can be reached at 270.247.3237