A new Capital Offenders Group of eighteen juvenile offenders begins its first day at the Giddings State School.

Ronnie tells the COG group his life story, describing his mother Marina's cocaine addiction and her repeated abandonment of her sons.

Ronnie's aunt beats him regularly in Marina's absence, and he begins fantasizing about using a knife to stop her cruelty.

Marina moves the family to Oklahoma but remains largely absent, leaving Ronnie and his brother in their grandparents' care.

Ronnie moves in with Marina and her boyfriend Jimmie in Amarillo, but the household proves unstable and emotionally distant.

COG teammates reenact traumatic scenes from Ronnie's childhood while he watches from the sidelines and breaks down sobbing.

Ronnie tells the group his crime story, recounting how Jimmie drew him into drug dealing and burglary with his cousins.

Ronnie and his cousins break into an elderly couple's home, threaten them at gunpoint, and force them toward a bank withdrawal.

Marina sees Ronnie identified as a robbery suspect on the evening news and persuades him to turn himself in to police.

During the crime story role-play, another student takes the victim's role while Ronnie watches and weeps, repeatedly crying that he is sorry.

Ronnie graduates from the COG program after demonstrating genuine empathy for his robbery victim and is released from Giddings.

The narrative shifts to the girls' COG group, where Hubner introduces Elena, one of thirteen children from a crime-involved family.

Elena tells her COG group about her stepfather Manny's repeated sexual assaults and her mother Lucy's deliberate refusal to believe her.

Elena joins gang members in robbing an antiques store and beats the elderly owner, who suffers a heart attack during the assault.

Both Ronnie and Elena complete the COG program, are released from Giddings, and go on to build stable, crime-free lives.

Author John Hubner introduces the Giddings State School's Capital Offenders Group, an intensive therapy program for violent juvenile offenders. The story follows Ronnie, a boy convicted of armed robbery, whose neglectful upbringing and abusive household pushed him toward crime. Through role-play therapy, Ronnie is forced to relive his childhood trauma and confront the impact of his crime on his elderly victim, eventually developing genuine empathy. The narrative then shifts to Elena, a girl from a gang-involved family who committed a violent robbery to gain acceptance and belonging. Like Ronnie, Elena undergoes the COG program's grueling psychodrama process and ultimately achieves the emotional breakthrough needed for release. Both students are freed from Giddings and go on to build stable, law-abiding lives, demonstrating the program's remarkable transformative power.

The core journey from incarceration to rehabilitation.

Hubner describes the Giddings State School campus as resembling a lush prep school rather than a maximum-security juvenile prison.

New COG students receive a manual listing nine thinking errors they must learn to identify and overcome during treatment.

Marina's father, a Pentecostal minister, sexually abuses Marina throughout her childhood while her mother refuses to acknowledge the assaults.

Authorities send Marina to a juvenile facility to shield her minister father from scandal after she reports his abuse.

Ronnie's father abandons his family and returns to live with his parents, who are prejudiced against his Mexican wife Marina.

During a rainstorm, Ronnie's aunt throws both brothers out the window, and the boys take shelter in a doghouse.

On his daily walk to school, Ronnie passes his alcohol-addicted father sitting on the porch, who offers only a weak wave.

COG group members challenge Ronnie about why he began bullying and abusing his little brother Kenny and other children at school.

Coach Sandy Brown fields a Giddings football team of convicted offenders who compete against and regularly defeat regular high school teams.

Star player Jerrold tells his teammates that football at Giddings gave him his first real experience of joy and true friendship.

Ric and Judy Nesbit join Parents of Murdered Children after their teenage daughter Katy is killed during a carjacking.

The Nesbits visit Giddings for the first time and react with outrage that convicted murderers live in such pleasant surroundings.

The Nesbits present a victim impact panel to Elena's group, showing photos of Katy from childhood to the morgue until the girls weep.

Two male students stage a fake escape attempt for the thrill, prompting staff to debate security measures versus therapeutic approaches.

After six years at Giddings, Candace convinces the Special Services Committee she has genuinely changed and earns her release.

This pool covers the background stories and institutional context surrounding the COG program at Giddings. Ronnie's family history of dysfunction stretches back to his mother Marina's own childhood abuse and his father's abandonment, showing how trauma passes between generations. A chapter on the school's football program reveals how sports offer students their first genuine experience of teamwork, success, and friendship. The Nesbits, parents of a murdered teenager named Katy, add a victim's perspective by presenting an emotional panel to Elena's group that helps unlock the girls' buried empathy. A failed escape attempt and Candace's lengthy rehabilitation journey round out the portrait of the school's complex daily life. Together, these events show the full ecosystem of support, discipline, and community that makes the COG program's success possible.

The supporting stories and programs that shape the COG experience.

Staff member Linda Reyes warns against dismissing students as psychopaths, saying all youth can still develop and change.

Ronnie hears other COG members share their own abuse stories and realizes for the first time that he is not alone in his suffering.

Ronnie recalls the Christmas when Marina arrived unannounced with gifts, only to leave abruptly when her brother confronted her about abandonment.

Ronnie chases Marina's departing car and grabs the car window to beg her not to leave him behind again.

At a Fourth of July gathering, Jimmie tries to stage a fistfight between Ronnie and a cousin for the adults' amusement.

A fellow student breaks character during Ronnie's childhood role-play and later privately admits to Ronnie that he also had no one to love him.

Jimmie discovers Ronnie holding his pistol and, rather than punishing him, bonds with the boy by firing a bullet into the ceiling.

Marina obtains a court order to remove Ronnie from Jimmie's home, but Ronnie refuses to leave and Marina departs without him.

Ronnie admits to the COG group that he planned to kill the elderly robbery victim after forcing him to withdraw money from the bank.

Ronnie becomes too distraught to participate in his own crime story role-play, and another boy steps into his place on the floor.

After the Nesbits' victim impact panel, a therapist tells the couple that the girls are learning a new way to handle anger.

Elena's COG teammates refuse to accept her excuses and press her until she admits she committed the robbery to win gang acceptance.

Elena's crime story role-play ends with her wailing on the floor as she finally breaks through years of emotional numbness.

A teammate asks Elena how she can consider herself a bad person if she is truly sorry and will never harm anyone again.

Hubner closes the book by expressing hope that the COG program's success at Giddings could one day transform juvenile justice nationwide.

This pool highlights the revelations and emotional turning points that define each student's transformation inside the COG program. Early breakthroughs for Ronnie come when he realizes other group members share his pain and when he must revisit painful childhood memories he has long suppressed, including his mother's repeated abandonments. His crime story reveals the specific decisions that escalated his violence, and the subsequent role-play pushes him to his emotional breaking point. For Elena, the turning point arrives when her teammates refuse to accept her deflective excuses and force her to admit the true motive behind her crime. Her role-play therapy finally cracks her emotional armor, and a teammate's compassionate question helps her see that genuine remorse can coexist with personal worthiness. Hubner closes by expressing hope that these individual breakthroughs could serve as a blueprint for reforming juvenile justice across the entire country.