Sgt. Matt Dumont, who helps oversee the program, said initially administrators were hoping to see the classes prove successful a few months down the line. They never imagined they would have an immediate success story like Harrold. Now, every prisoner wants to get in the program.

"We're getting more requests than we'll ever have room for," he said.

For Harrold, he hopes his act is the first step of getting back on the right path. This is his ninth booking at the Salt Lake County Jail. He said he was drug addicted and was incarcerated this time for attempted forgery. He has been in the jail for seven months and is due to be released at the end of May.

In his previous trips to jail, the Life Skills Program wasn't available and he wasn't interested in changing anyway.

"I didn't know who I was. I didn't care," he said. "I was a thug. I thought I was cool enough doin' what I was doin'."

But the Life Skills classes gave Harrold what he called the tools to change. Armed now with an education, employment opportunities and a family waiting for him, he believes everything else in his life will now fall into place.

"I don't see myself coming back here," he said of the jail."I'm ready to change ... ready to be a man."

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com