‘School or Jail’ a Winner

At the end of last month, a graduating class of 61 teen-age students gathered to celebrate their academic achievement. There was no prom or grad night celebration. For these students, graduation meant more than a diploma. It literally meant freedom. And for some, the first real positive personal accomplishment of their lives.

The group was composed of youths who had appeared before Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who had been sitting as judge of the Juvenile Court. All faced confinement and most probably more tangles with the law. But they also had the courage to accept the challenge of the judge’s “go to school or go to jail” program. His deal with them was that they stay in school and do well, or, if they agreed to join the program and failed, do double the time in Juvenile Hall.

Of the 66 juveniles who took the challenge, 61 completed the semester with good grades and no more problems with the law.

The results surprised and heartened many case-hardened and skeptical prosecutors and court observers, some parents, and, we suspect, some of the students, too.

Carter finished his Juvenile Court assignment and has been replaced by Superior Court Judge C. Robert Jameson. We hope Jameson continues Carter’s novel “go to school or go to jail” approach to juvenile justice. It’s a no-nonsense rehabilitation effort based on a positive approach that diverts juveniles out of the criminal justice system instead of locking them into it.