I spent yesterday in the Juvenile Detention Center (i.e., the kids' jail) interviewing clients. It's fairly somber inside, although unlike the adult jail, the JDC actually has windows. (The windows face the local sports stadium where the pro baseball team plays. Which means that every time I've been to a ball game, there has probably been some 15-year-old kid watching me walk into the stadium and thinking to himself how he would give anything to be out of jail and watching baseball.)
People have asked me if it's sad to go to the kids' jail. Strangely, it isn't sad to be inside and talk with these youngsters.
What's really sad is when these kids have to show up in court for hearings, and nobody comes to support them. No friends, no parents, no cousins, no aunts or uncles. A lot of these kids have been abandoned since their early teens. Many have bounced around from group homes to foster families and back again. The vast majority -- 75%? -- are not life-long criminals, but rather confused and angry kids going through a phase they will soon grow out of.
That's why it's so sad to see their courage when they show up in court with no one by their side. They're not angels, but they deserve someone there (besides the public defender) on their behalf. I know I couldn't have done it alone when I was 15.
The first few lines of The Great Gatsby have never felt more true.
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"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.'"
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