It was only a matter of time until he would be dead.

That's the lesson Rodney Robinson, 18, learned from living life on the streets, trying to make a quick buck.

While others were in school, the high school dropout from Athens, Ga., was involved in a shoot-out, the crime that put him in the Augusta Youth Development Center, a juvenile detention center, serving time on an aggravated assault charge.

"I'd probably be dead because of the stuff that I was doing" had I not been caught, said Mr. Robinson, who was released from the YDC earlier this month and is now enrolled at Athens Technical College.

Having turned his back on school, he rediscovered education in what is called the state's 181st school system - the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.

It's there that he realized education is his key to freedom and a better life.

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS have a greater likelihood to end up incarcerated. On average, each long-term inmate costs taxpayers $16,841, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Georgia's prison population is nearly 50,000 inmates. Three quarters are high school dropouts, according to the Georgia Bureau of Prison's statistics. The percentage nationally for inmates in state prisons is also at 75 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"There is a direct correlation," said Richmond County State Court Judge David D. Watkins. "I've told people ... it's almost a profile. It's one of the main components - dropping out."

Conversely, Judge Watkins, whose criminal caseload is made up of misdemeanor and traffic offenses, said it's rare to see high school graduates in court two or three times.

Young people who aren't in school also seem to lack jobs, he said. What happens next - trouble - shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, he said.

Superior Court Judge Duncan D. Wheale agreed. Many of the people prosecuted in Superior Court for felonies have not completed their high school education and are jobless, he said.

"If you got a kid in the ninth grade dropping out, who's going to hire him?" Judge Wheale asked.

No one's hiring them;9 they're out committing crimes instead, District Attorney Danny Craig said.

He points to the Georgia prison inmate profile: 90 percent are 17- to 28-year-old men; they average a sixth-grade reading level and fifth-grade math level. They have two children on average but never married. They lacked a male parent themselves, Mr. Craig said.

If society is to reduce crime in any lasting measure, it must fix the educational system, Mr. Craig said. He believes the traditional structure should be torn down and school boards should build a system of magnet schools and technical programs.

REGIS DEVEAUX, 18, finished his education in the Augusta juvenile detention center. He was sentenced to the center for his role in a shoot-out, having been found guilty of aggravated assault.

"It didn't feel good to be shackled, to be locked down," he said. "It doesn't feel good to be away from home. It doesn't feel good not being able to go do what you want to do. It doesn't feel good not having freedom, so I decided early that I had to do something different."

That meant rededicating himself to his education. While incarcerated, he earned his high school diploma, and since then has been released and is enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

"Coming here," Mr. Deveaux said before being released, "it wasn't worth it."

Reach Greg Gelpi or Sandy Hodson at (706) 724-0851.