When a middle school student (13 years old) in Kentucky totaled two of our government owned vehicles, I wrote a letter to the judge asking for the following: (a) write a letter of apology to the President for destroying government property and (b) show up every Saturday for a year to help wash our vehicles.
I honestly didn’t believe any judge in a juvenile case would give my request a second thought, but she approved both of them. My hope was that spending part of a Saturday for a year in the company of Navy Sailors would help the young man living with his grandmother (missing father and junkie mother in prison) more than sending him to a detention facility.
And what happened?