With a seven-year sentence hanging over his head, Kyle King was given a break by an Idaho judge. Kyle was given the opportunity to instead spend four months at MTC’s Idaho CAPP facility to see if he could successfully complete the rehabilitation programming and stay out of trouble.

Kyle went on camera, explaining his gratitude for the opportunity he received at Idaho CAPP.

“I started my orientation. I went in there and was immediately told I wasn’t [on target to] graduate. And that was kind of discouraging, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. I went back to the unit and talked to a couple of guys. I said, ‘What’s the point of even being here if I’m not going to make it?’ Everybody just told me to go ahead and just try to stick it out, and that way if you don’t make it you at least know you did everything you could.”

“And so, I went to my classes that following week. I talked to my teacher about it, and she said ‘Yeah, go ahead and do everything you can, and I’ll do everything I can on my part.’ You could tell that she genuinely cared, and she wanted to do everything in my CBI [cognitive behavioral intervention] class.  So that definitely motivated me.  She said, ‘As long as you do your part, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you get out.’

“So, I kind of kicked in gear and did everything I could, and I really pushed to stand out and go above and beyond in everything we did. Here in the last couple of months, we’ve been working on these skill cards that kind of show you how to go about real-life situations by understanding your feelings, by understanding other people’s feelings; effective communication. Then you go back on the unit and you practice role-playing them in real-life scenarios, so you’ll know how to handle the situation when they come out in real-life society. There’s been a lot of benefits, and you get what you want out of it. It’s definitely been a big opportunity for me, and a life-changing experience, and I can go out there and put these skills to use.

“I did everything I could. I got my GED since I got here. I’ve taken pre-release, I’ve taken CBI. I’m ready in one shot, because they went ahead and recommended probation because I went above and beyond. So, this is definitely a cool experience. It’s kind of a ‘you’re going to get out of it what you want’, so if you put your best foot forward, you’re going to get everything you put into it, out.”