- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Superior Court Judge John Phillips remembers the day 23 years ago like it was yesterday.
A kid stood in his courtroom who’d committed a murder, a young man who was still angry and unrepentant. Then the boy’s grandmother entered.
“He broke down and started crying,” said Phillips. “He was just a kid. And I’m thinking, ‘I’m sending kids to prison for life.’”
Phillips, now 81, had seen it all in 13 years as a district attorney and then 21 as a judge. Shootings, thefts, assault. He handed out difficult sentences, but he was troubled by the stories of many children who went through his courtroom.
“It’s very easy to pull a trigger if you don’t have any future, you don’t have any goals and you don’t have anything to look forward to,” he said.
I can present a link - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/27/sweden-seeks-to-stem-deadly-rise-in-youth
It’s actually quite a positive story though (I think). Crime is up but the police commissioner is pragmatic about how to try to curb it through early intervention etc.