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Ryan Bridge: Youth Court is a good idea – when it works
The Youth Court is a good idea because it tries to steer kids away from adult prisons and a life of crime. But when it fails, it fails spectacularly, and we all pay the price for leniency.
Take teenager Dontae Eden. When he was 16, he bashed a 78-year-old man nearly to death while the old guy slept in his bed.
A Youth Court judge gave him a warning and told him to keep out of trouble.
If that's not lenient, I don't know what is. Did he stay out of trouble? No.
Stuff reports that three months later he robbed a bloke in Wellington, stole from a petrol station, and resisted arrest by the cops…
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