HELENA - "The CTC Program helped me to take an honest look at myself and that's something I had never done before," explained recent Treasure State Correctional Training Center graduate Cody Duncan. "And when I did, I saw all the things I was doing to my friends, to my family, to myself mainly."

At his lowest point Cody was homeless, living out of his car and stealing money from his family to support his drug habit. His mother offered him help and treatment, but none of it pulled him out of the hole he had dug for himself.

Convicted of felony possession with intent to distribute, boot camp may have been Cody's saving grace. "This program is the first thing that I've actually ever completed in my life," he said. "I haven't completed school, I haven't kept a job for more than a few months. So this program, to me, me completing this program is a great, a huge, accomplishment to myself."

Cody graduated from the boot camp on Wednesday. And while he says he knows he's not rehabilitated he now has the tools to make the right decisions. He's prepared to meet the daily struggles on the outside world that will test what he's learned.

What is the biggest part of boot camp is, the physical training or the psychological reconstruction? "The physical part of the program, I think, helps you gain mental discipline and integrity. But from day one they're breaking down the walls that you've built over your life. And they don't stop until they're crumbled on the ground," he continued.

Cody is confident of himself now and of his ability to live on the straight and narrow. And so is his family. The word his mom uses, "Hope."

"I don't know why it happened this way," Cody's mom Mary Ivers said. "I wish it were an easier path for him, but it wasn't. And he still has a lot of things to finish up and a lot of messes to clean up. But at least he's got his feet pointed in the right direction."

If Cody had one thing to tell new trainees now that he's made it through the program, he said only one thing, don't quit. "Don't quit. Because everyone can make it through this program, everyone, if they want to."