Weathersbee: Shelby County's juvenile judge sees youths as redeemable. It's time everyone else did too

It was an exasperating, but sadly, not an unusual morning for Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael.

Six youths facing charges ranging from burglary to carjacking appeared before him.

Only three showed up with parents.

“I get angry, and I try not to express that, but it makes me angry when I have a 14-year-old standing up there [without a parent],” Michael said. “…What it says to me is, ‘Are you surprised he’s standing there if the parent can’t even make it to the hearing?’

Where is mom; where is dad?

“He’s 14-years-old…Where is your mom? Where is your dad? Where is whoever is caring for you? So, I’ve got to reach out in the hall, to find a guardian to represent the 14-year-old, so that this 14-year-old has an adult to represent his interest during the report hearing…”

But don’t think for one minute that Michael’s frustration with some of the parents – some of whom have legitimate reasons for not being able to make it to court – has crowded out his hopes for the futures of the children who appear before him.

That’s because he still sees them not only as redeemable, but as essential to Shelby County’s future. So, he’s not interested in filling prisons.

Michael is interested in emptying them.

That’s why Michael has also been exploring, along with other members of his staff, how other communities deal with the kind of youth angst that can lead them to commit crimes.

Lessons from Choctaw Nation

That quest recently led them to Philadelphia, Miss., where they spent time with the Choctaw Nation to see how aspects of the tribal approach that they use to guide youths could work here.

“They’re [Native American communities] are about 20 years behind in the problems that we face, because they’re a closed society,” Michael said.

“But what they do there that we could absolutely do here is that they use their council of elders. Those are seven Native American men, who are Choctaw, and when a child is placed on probation, those seven men are essentially the guiding force behind that child’s probation. They meet with that young man, and they mentor that young man [to keep him from further trouble].”

Michael said he believes that if seven men were recruited in five of the city’s worse zip codes to be mentors, and if they were to introduce those troubled youths to those circles of elders, that would go a long way toward stopping them from sliding into criminality.

“It works in the Choctaw Nation, so why can’t it work here?” Michael asked. “Because one of the things that kids in those zip codes lack is a strong male influence - a positive male influence…”

Michael has looked at other things too.

Other solutions

For one, he would like to see a system created in which a juvenile who is convicted of a serious crime is only incarcerated until his or her 25th birthday – with the time in between spent on intensive rehabilitation.

As an example, Michael used the case of two 17-year-olds charged with aggravated robbery under the current system, and under the one he envisions.

“I hear the case, and I transfer the 17-year-old to the adult system. With aggravated robbery, he’s going to get 8 to 15 years,” he said.

“At 17, his brain is still growing. His brain is continuing to grow while he’s in prison. So, we’re going to put him in a system which does not respect his future…so when he comes out in 13 to 14 years he’s going to be mean. He’s going to be mad. And the recidivism rate for that child is around 85 percent.”

More money, more pain

In other words, that child is going to cost society more money – and more pain.

“But let’s take the other 17-year-old,” Michael said. “Let’s say we had a system in Tennessee that could maintain that child say, until his 25th birthday, and I put him in that system.

“Now, he’s in a secured facility because what he did was dangerous. He’s a risk to the community. They wake him up every day, he goes to school every day, he earns his high school diploma. Then the system says to him, ‘Dan, you’ve earned your high school diploma. Are you interested in education or are you interested in a vocation?’ So, he says, ‘I’d like to be a plumber.’ So, we’re going to hook you up with that.

“If the kid is in a system while his brain is maturing, and he’s not a problem, we parole him at 21, while the other kid is still sitting in prison, and this other 17-year-old gets out, starts working at a plumbing company and paying taxes, so that if he stays on the straight and narrow, at 26 we expunge his record. We say, ‘Goodbye, have a nice life.’

“The difference between the two systems and the two philosophies is that we are respecting the maturity that comes with age, to help the child get past his destructive behavior and become a productive citizen, so we’re respecting his future, whereas locking him up and throwing away the key does not respect that future.”

It also doesn’t respect the future of the community.

When not enough is done to rehabilitate youths whose crimes are part of the dysfunction that comes from them growing up in neighborhoods that are economically and socially isolated, and when they are viewed as disposable, it not only is a waste.

It's a tragedy

It’s also a tragedy.

“The kids we deal with are usually very bright. They’re socially stunted because of lack of education and all the social problems that they face,” Michael said. “So, what are we losing if we don’t do it right? We’re losing the potential for the future.”

It’s great – albeit not all that surprising – that Michael gets this. What would be greater is if he can ultimately get everyone else to get it. And to help. And to care.

Even if some of the parents don’t.