News 12 at 11 o'clock -- March 13, 2010

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Many parents and community leaders came together at the Gracewood Community Center all trying find a way to stop recent string of violence in their community.

City leaders such as Mayor Pro-tem Alvin Mason and Cpt. Scott Peebles of the Richmond Co. Sheriff's Office to speak to the community, but inmates spoke too.

"Prison is not good, it's awful," said one of the inmates. "You can go in there as hard as you want, but when you get underneath those sheets, it's rough on you, sad and depressing."

Another inmate spoke about how he's nothing now and how his decision has hurt both him and his family.

Two inmates serving hard time, which they say could have been prevented if they didn't choose the streets.

"Everybody knows somebody who's doing something wrong and I can't tell you how to live your life," one of the inmates said. "I can just advise you to do the right thing because if you don't Georgia Department of Corrections has a place for you."

A place all of these parents want to keep their kids out of. In order to do that though, they say it starts at home.

"The whole privacy thing we need to give that up," said Robin Fuewell, 16-year-old Brandon Taylor's mother. "Check their cellphones, check their MySpace accounts. They will put anything on those accounts so check it."

She said she didn't check and double check her son and now, he's gone. It's not too late for other parents though she said.

Cpt. Peebles said all the talk during these meetings needs to be acted upon in order to make a difference in the children's lives.

They plan to have these meetings once a month.