Giving people felonies at the rate they commit crimes is not "systemic racism". It's nice that you're able to burble excitedly about getting a sentence reduction for some psychopaths who shot up their neighborhood, but normal people will hear about recent stories where a carjacker took off with a baby in the car, imagine that's their mother or wife or sister having the gun in their face, and they aren't interested in someone lecturing them on how New Brain Studies Prove that homicide is a normal part of youth development and putting people like this in jail is harmful. It's too bad a judge can't see how incarceration is a good thing - I hope your replacement is able to put aside the politics and bias that you weren't able to.

Just because something disproportionately impacts certain groups of people does not make that thing systemically racist. This tactic of labeling something racist anytime the outcome is not what the local activist groups wants to see is both disingenuous and dangerous to the community at large. Whether its bike helmet laws, jaywalking or now murder and assault the issue isn't the law, its why some communities are more prone to be in violation of them. In some cases (e.g. the bike helmet) biased policing plays a part but when it comes to felony level crimes I think you need to be focusing on why these young men feel the need to join gangs and fix that. Removing the consequences of their actions once they have joined a gang and committed violent acts only puts the rest of the community at danger.

On a totally separate note I find it amusing that the TS would publish a rant that goes to great lengths to describe how a young person's brain is undeveloped and immature therefore these kids are really not capable of making decisions that will impact them for the rest of their lives. Yet in other articles we are supposed to believe that these same people should be allowed to vote by the age of 16 and make medical decisions for their bodies that are irreversible. Which is it? Are these kids capable of understanding and accepting the consequences of their actions or does it depend on the decision being made?

Glad there are at least some people who want our laws to be based on science and reality instead of fear mongering.

Our penal system is based on a philosophy of vengeance, not one of consequences or trying to stop crimes before they happen.

19 or 20 year olds rarely think of consequences, and never believe they will happen to them anyway, so none of this works.

There's a sneaky bit of conflation here today where "a young person's brain isn't as developed as an older person's brain" is somehow presented as the natural companion of "therefore, 20 year olds who commit homicidal violence should not have to experience consequences, or indeed be sequestered at all".

@bazinga ur really gonna read this article where a super progressive former judge is lamenting how fucked up the law is towards marginalized members of society…and call her a TERF. Not to mention you’re calling her a TERF based on what? That she’s pointing out that your frontal lobe doesn’t fully mature until you’re 25. That’s a fact.

You’re a bigger clown than these MAGA fucks who don’t even read the article and just bash anything “woke”.

@8: “Our penal system is based on a philosophy of vengeance,”

Hence all those sentences which require the killing of someone else as punishment for murder? No, our penal system is designed to keep persons who’ve been proven, in open court, to have behaved in dangerously asocial manners safely away from the rest of us.

“…not one of consequences … “

Choose to behave in a manner which endangers everyone around you, and we’ll choose to put you in a place where your opportunities to harm other human beings with your dangerous behavior is drastically reduced. Action leads to consequence.

“… or trying to stop crimes before they happen.”

By definition of “penal,” derived from the same word as “punishment,” we indeed do not expect such a system to “stop crimes before they happen.” Now, if you want to say the justice system, police, government, or society should be “…trying to stop crimes before they happen,” I’ll agree that’s a worthy goal.

“19 or 20 year olds rarely think of consequences, and never believe they will happen to them anyway, so none of this works.”

So, you’re saying they need a nice long time to think about consequences? Perhaps in a place where they can really focus on what they did? Where they’re safely away from the rest of us? I’ll agree with you on all of that, too!