Well my first question would be (and this doesn't seem to be the first question that "justice" systems ask), what situations are these kids in?
I'm not saying that the situation completely excuses a severe punishment but when you looked at stories like these, did you even wonder:
- Maybe this kind of robbery has happened to them, or to their friends, family or neighbors. It's not hard to imagine someone turning cold after seeing bad things happen to loved ones.
- Maybe they know something that the store owner did and it was a kind of "mob justice". (I'm not justifying them shooting the guy. Yet, based solely on the knowledge that the owner was begging for his life, you don't know enough about the situation to understand why the kids shot him.)
- Are these things happening because of other factors? Economics are frequently a reason. I can imagine giving a lot less of a crap about society if I was dirt poor and I couldn't see any way to make it better.
I think the first solution they should consider is if they can make the perpetrator's life better. Prison makes it undeniably worse; ironically, if being poor got them into prison, they'll probably be even worse off after prison (what with people refusing to hire convicts and such).
I'm not saying that the situation completely excuses a severe punishment but when you looked at stories like these, did you even wonder:
- Maybe this kind of robbery has happened to them, or to their friends, family or neighbors. It's not hard to imagine someone turning cold after seeing bad things happen to loved ones.
- Maybe they know something that the store owner did and it was a kind of "mob justice". (I'm not justifying them shooting the guy. Yet, based solely on the knowledge that the owner was begging for his life, you don't know enough about the situation to understand why the kids shot him.)
- Are these things happening because of other factors? Economics are frequently a reason. I can imagine giving a lot less of a crap about society if I was dirt poor and I couldn't see any way to make it better.
I think the first solution they should consider is if they can make the perpetrator's life better. Prison makes it undeniably worse; ironically, if being poor got them into prison, they'll probably be even worse off after prison (what with people refusing to hire convicts and such).