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
    -6•11 months ago

    whether or not they know it’s bad is irrelevant.

    Says who? Lol.

    is it worth destroying their entire future just because they were in a bad situation and often were manipulated by adults?

    Sorry, I’m going to ignore your derailing question because you failed to answer my relevant ones.

    Think about all the futures that get destroyed when they murder someone.

    • @jomoo99
      5•11 months ago

      Locking the kid up won’t bring the victim back nor will it prevent future violence

      • Echo Dot
        3•11 months ago

        Particularly because the violence is ultimately perpetrated by the adults who are using the kids.

    • Echo Dot
      2•11 months ago

      Now you’re talking about vengeance which isn’t the same as justice.

      Please decide what you want to debate and then debate that topic rather than jumping around randomly picking topics. You’re the one derailing any conversation.

      Also I didn’t fail to answer your question because you didn’t ask a question