Rancho Cielo aims to give students the skills to get good jobs and a sense that their lives have purpose and meaning.

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.

  • @interceder270
    -27•7 months ago

    When I was a kid, I knew murder was wrong, hurt others, and would negatively impact my future in ways I could not foresee. I knew me being a child was not an excuse to commit murder, just like it wasn’t an excuse to start fights, steal, curse, harass, eat nothing but junk-food, run around naked etc.

    I’d wager the vast majority of children around me thought the same. Were you an exception? Lol.

    The idea that kids can’t know what they’re doing is wrong or that they will face consequences is retarded.

    It’s sad this is a radical take in some judicial systems around the world.

    It’s not radical in Sweden, and they have children committing murder left and right because they know they’ll get off easy. Some of the gangsters in Sweden tried to commit murder in neighboring Norway and ended up getting 20 years.

    What’s really sad is how bleeding-hearts routinely get taken advantage of and it’s up to adults to fix the issues you cause.

    • @[email protected]English
      13•7 months ago

      Do you believe in rehabilitation? Would you say your values are exactly the same now as they were when you were a child? Do you think that people who grew up in unhealthy environments come out of it with a well-formed sense of psychonormativity?

      • @interceder270
        -15•7 months ago

        I’m not going to indulge your derailing questions.

        Everything you say you should be telling to the victims of these criminals. Go ahead, tell them the people who murdered their loved ones for (checks notes) money should get off easy because they ‘didn’t know any better.’

        Fuck that. Glad people like you don’t govern the world, lol. We’d be at the mercy of the worst of us because you’d keep saying ‘they can be better!’

        • @[email protected]English
          11•7 months ago

          I used to work in restorative justice and you’d be surprised at the benefits for the offenders AND the victims/families of victims when I worked in criminology so I’ve had this conversation with the victims.

          Does it always work? No. But when it does does it improve things? Generally yes. It’s not black and white.

    • @TenderfootGungi
      7•7 months ago

      The Sweden child murder rate is going to need a source.

    • @SCB
      6•7 months ago

      What’s really sad is how bleeding-hearts routinely get taken advantage of and it’s up to adults to fix the issues you cause.

      You’re commenting on an article about a bleeding-heart system working beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

    • @Furedadmins
      1•7 months ago

      Alll of Sweden’s murders are like a busy day for the United States. Left and right 😂