Political Quotes

“the juvenile judges of the juvenile courts in this country face a wide variety of young people. Sometimes brought before them are teenagers who already, because of the brutality of their upbringing, the deprivation of their upbringing, are so violent and vicious and predatory that they may in fact not be able to be redeemed or rehabilitated; and for the benefit and safety of society, they indeed do need to be locked away, sometimes for the rest of their lives. Other kids come before the courts who, because of their immaturity, because of lack of proper parental guidance, have done some stupid things, got in trouble with the law, and these kids need to be treated firmly, but they need to be treated fairly and we need to see that they are steered away from a life of crime. Some of the group of kids come before the courts because they have committed status offenses, something that would not be a crime if they were adults, but they are chronic truants, they run away from home. And they do that for a lot of reasons, and the courts need to decide whether this is a child who is simply incorrigible and needs some firmness, or whether this is a kid who is running away from abuse at home and needs to be protected from his or her own parents. This act needs to thread that needle. This act needs to balance all those considerations, and we in the Congress have to give the State juvenile court judges the latitude they need.”