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.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
      19·
      1 year ago

      I was an edge lordy kid when I told a teacher that I wish he was mauled by 10 dogs.

      What did the school do? They suspended me for three days, of course. What did my parents do? They grounded me for two weeks, of course.

      Today I’m in my 40s, and I still get angry when I remember those events. I wasn’t even a troublemaker. It was in the spur of the moment (I was being accused of being loud.)

      Was it wrong what I did? Absolutely! But the question “Son, is everything okay with you? How can we help you?” was never uttered and let me tell you: it would have helped tremendously.