Eddie Turner was 15 minutes late to class and heading into trouble.

Enrolled in Fulton County's new pretrial diversion program for drug offenders, Turner knew being tardy was unacceptable.

Marcus K. Garner/AJC (ENLARGE)

Darryl Smith, a member of the True Life Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, counsels participants in the pretrial diversion program.

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"I overslept," Turner, 21, told Assistant District Attorney Kimani King.

"That's a poor excuse," King said.

"It's my first time being late," Turner said.

"You won't get another chance," King said.

Turner is working on his last chance.

The west Atlanta resident is one of 19 young men arrested recently on felony drug charges. Fulton County court officials have offered them a reprieve from conviction and jail — if they can stay out of trouble for a year.

Facing up to 20 years in prison, Turner and the others will be absolved of their felony charges if they successfully complete the 12-month program.

"Arresting these low-level drug dealers is so prevalent, it doesn't even dent the public's radar," Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. said. "Maybe we can do something different."

The program, Project Turn Around, envisioned by Howard and Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington — and given an unexpected celebrity assist by Bill Cosby — is intended to remove "small-time" street dealers from the drug game and show them how to survive honestly.

"I want to make sure, before I send somebody to jail for an extended period of time, that I've done everything I can do to make them a better person," Arrington said to participants at the pilot program's start-up last month.

Modeled after San Francisco's Mentor Court, Project Turn Around relies on volunteers from community organizations and county agencies to help rehabilitate young men ages 17 to 25.

Big goals, big obstacles

But can the program's lofty goals overcome the obstacles — illiteracy, drug addiction, little or no job skills — intrinsic in the poverty-stricken areas the participants call home?

The young men receive drug counseling, GED classes, job training, family counseling, enrichment courses, life-skills training and other social services from resources such as the Georgia Department of Labor, the United Way, Goodwill Industries, Job Corps, the U.S. Army, the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness and the Fulton County Housing Authority.

A big part of Project Turn Around is encouraging intervention from the parents. Volunteer community mentors and organizations, such as the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta, provide weekly manhood and responsibility classes.

The program does not cost Fulton any additional public funds because it's run as if the 19 men were in the county probation system, program officials said.

Tardiness and cursing, sagging pants and wearing hats inside are unacceptable. Attending appointments drunk or high, or just plain missing them, can get an enrollee flunked and sent back to jail.

"We're trying to look at each guy individually to see what these guys' shortcomings might be," Howard said. "If he needs to finish high school, if he needs to get drug [abuse] treatment, if he needs to learn marketable skills for jobs ... that's what we're going to help them with."

To date, no one has dropped out or been arrested again.

Fireside chat

Project Turn Around officially launched May 22 in Arrington's courtroom. Its first class was chosen from more than 200 young black men arrested in February on charges of selling cocaine throughout Atlanta, Howard said.

The program was brought into the spotlight, even in its genesis, by an act by Arrington in March that the judge now admits was a mistake.

Fed up with the seemingly endless stream of young black defendants before him, Arrington, who also is black, dismissed every white person in his courtroom for a closed-door "fireside chat" with the African-Americans before him.

"To see these young folks walk through here and not say anything is irresponsible of me," he said.

Though the judge later called the move "a bad judgment call," it caught the attention of Cosby, who has been outspoken against some of the shortcomings of black youths.

The comedian and actor lent his star power to the cause, appearing with Arrington in April to announce Project Turn Around and urging parents and volunteers to become involved.

A tremendous challenge

Shannon Johns, 23, was arrested in February at his East Atlanta home. He has been a "foot soldier," selling cocaine on the street, since he was 11.

"One of the older gentlemen in my neighborhood gave me my first pack," Johns said. "He said, 'You can make $100,' just bring him back $50."

King, the assistant district attorney working with Turn Around participants, said most of them have backgrounds similar to Johns', and many of them — as well as their parents — have serious issues.

"We're going to give them whatever they need," King said. "We want to change their environment."

But Georgia Corrections Department probations officer Larry Perrino Sr. said getting the participants to follow a life plan poses "a tremendous challenge."

"They have a good chance of getting back into mainstream society and avoid being indicted," Perrino said. But, he added, "all of that sounds easier than it actually is."

It's a lot to ask a potential employer to hire and train someone with little or no job skills and educational deficiencies, Perrino said.

"You are asking an employer to take a heck of a risk," he said. "But we really need the employers to help us."

Some of the drug defendants may need more than a year to get turned around. Howard acknowledged that the lure of fast and easy drug money will be too much for some of them. "It would be naive to think that 100 percent of them will buy into it," he said.

Already looking ahead

King said the district attorney's office plans to begin a second class in the next two months.

Howard suggested that to rehabilitate criminals before they become career offenders is better than spending about $55 a day to jail each of them.

"We would have developed a positive citizen who is contributing to the community," he said. "Maybe they'll take care of their children, and the mothers won't have to survive on [public aid]."

Johns said he had no other choice but dealing drugs when he was growing up. Now, he sees another way.

"Throughout my life, I've never had anyone talking positive to me," Johns said. "I'm not too old to change."

Eddie Turner said being pulled into the program may be the change his life needs. "I'm not happy I had to be arrested, but I'm happy it happened."