Where do Bad Children Go?

In one Richmond group home, where he was placed as the result of a conviction, Eugene says he found himself in the middle of a drug-infested neighborhood being overseen by counselors who did drugs with the kids in the program.

But by and large, he says, the group homes were a welcome sanctuary from his real family. His mother is a crack addict who can't keep food in the house, and she and his siblings are diagnosed schizophrenics.

"But you get too comfortable with that [group homes] as a way out," he says. "Basically, I knew that if I committed a crime I'd go to a group home."

Says Aparicio: "You just isolate the issue at a group home. You are just dealing with the kid, and nothing is worked out at home."

Which is what CBO workers say is the advantage of funding programs that deal with problems locally.

Whenever Eugene came home and found nothing to eat, he says he immediately went out looking for his gangmates, his real family. "They'd say, 'Hey homey, let's go get you some food.' "

Even today, after spending the bulk of his young life being misread -- and misplaced -- by a thoughtless system, Eugene is still struggling to change.

"I want to give back to the community now because I've done so much bad to the community."

But given how far cases like Eugene's have been allowed to spiral out of control, it's no surprise kids like him have limited capacity for change.

"Once you're in a gang, you're in forever," he says. "I don't see myself doing any drive-bys. But I see myself being 80 and still wearing the blue rag.