CLEMSON, S.C. - Clemson University and the Department of Juvenile Justice have agreed to an effort to help rehabilitate incarcerated juveniles and keep troubled youth out of jail.

The agreement Thursday teams Clemson and DJJ on projects such as day treatment centers, help for families of troubled youth and development of the state juvenile prison's 600-acre campus.

"If we can pull this off, I think it will be a model for the nation," said DJJ director Bill Byars. "We're going to save kids."

About 1,400 youth are in custody and 27,000 young people are in the juvenile justice system but not incarcerated, said Byars and Stephen Lance, marketing director for Clemson's Youth Leadership Institute.

"This is the last chance to turn them around," said Byars. "Historically we have not been very successful in the number of kids we were able to turn around."

If nothing is done, "We'll just be locking kids up, and when we turn them out, they'll be worse than when they came in," Byars said.

Clemson will provide expertise DJJ can't afford, Byars said. The state juvenile facility will be a learning laboratory for Clemson students and researchers.

"I've got all these kids that are locked up and I've got them sitting on 600 acres in old buildings and they need to be occupied. They need to be learning new things," Byars said.

Byars wants nonviolent juveniles "out from behind razor wire" and into wilderness camps that "turn around about two thirds of the kids."

Clemson can develop a variety of programs to keep juveniles from being incarcerated or committing further crimes, Lance said.

"Some of these kids have family problems that need to be resolved. We're also talking about doing day treatment to give some of these young people a place to go after school when most of the crimes are committed," Lance said.

Information from: The Greenville News