Remote patrol weekend

Think all TV judges are created equal? Meet Greg Mathis, the reformed street punk who became a social activist, real-life justice and now TV's "Judge Mathis" (10 a.m., Channel 62). You'll learn his story in today's one-hour special episode, which is one part autobiography, one part "Scared Straight." Mathis recalls his teen years in a gang and the sobering announcement from his mother that made him turn his life around. He also recounts a fateful encounter with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1977 that pointed him toward law school. (After a youth rally at which Jackson spoke, Mathis rushed backstage and told the minister he wanted to "go to war" with him. Jackson rebuffed him, saying, "You don't have the ammunition" - that is, a college degree.) In the program's second half, Mathis corrals a group of ne'er-do-well teen-agers and hauls them off to Detroit's Wayne County Jail for an old-fashioned chew-out session with several longtime inmates. As unlikely as it seems, this may be the place where tomorrow's leaders are made. >>>