We had reform schools for troubled youth back when I was young.
They still do. Its called residential treatment centers/school. This kid was exactly the type of kid who should have been placed there, at the state’s expense. They almost never do it because of the cost.
In Iowa, there was the Iowa State Training School in Eldora. Many years ago it was a curious combination: a sort of trade school, internment/labor camp and all-around "last chance" that parents threatened their unruly kids with. I knew an old timer who was sent there back when the boys had to grow some of the food that was consumed there and help shovel coal out of the railcars that reached the school boiler plant on a spur track... and he credited the place with turning his life around.
“We had reform schools for troubled youth back when I was young.”
I was going to mention that. But the genius government got rid of them just like mental institutions
When I was in grammar school/high school juvenile delinquents were noticeable by the goose eggs on their heads from wood shampoos and black eyes from sap gloves. The men who ran the reform schools were rough WW2 vets. Some of the punks were given the option of the military and many of them took it and got straightened out.