Andy Perkins wanted to get it right, to keep all the memories straight.

So we wrote it down.

In three word documents, Andy typed out a personal history of his time at a place called YDC, the Youth Development Center.

Andy had just reached out to some lawyers, and he figured it would be important to get all the

stories together in one place.

I'm worried I didn't put something in that would be needed.

I'm worried I'll hear that I didn't get all the stories in the correct order or something

crazy like that.

These things happen.

It was 30 years ago. I remember these things extremely

vividly. What I don't remember for sure is exact timing and some events that surround these.

YDC was the juvenile jail for the state of New Hampshire. Judges sent boys and girls there for all kinds of reasons.

Sometimes a serious, violent act, like an assault or even a murder. But usually much smaller things,

like stealing or running away from home. For Andy, it was a burglary. He and a friend broke into a

house that Andy says was a party spot for local kids.

He says they found some cocaine inside, and they used it. And then Andy says they trashed the place.

He was 14.

First, the judge sent him to a group home, then a wilderness therapy camp.

Then Andy need a staffer at the camp in the groin.

The judge declared Andy was a danger to society. So off to YDC, the last stop in the state's

juvenile justice system. I was scared. I was terrified. It was real, you know, jail. The doors, everything, you know, especially the Dula sound, I think, bothered me the most.

That clicking sound and it's so final. It's so, you know you're shut off from the world.

...