come on out. hey, morris, how are you? don ruck, i ll be your lawyer today. 17-year-old morris is locked up for possession of marijuana and more importantly for failing to appear at a former court hearing. he meets with his court appointed attorney. today the court wants to hear a little bit about what happened and make a decision whether or not to release you today. what do you want to have happen? i want to get released. okay. did you test positive for marijuana when you came in? you did. yeah. all right. the court s going to ask you why you were using marijuana. do you know how you d answer that? yeah, i would tell them i was in a gang. they were smoking marijuana. one of the things i know is the probation department is recommending that you stay locked up. we have our work cut out for us. the difficult challenge as a public defender for a child is
judge, michael meets with his court-appointed attorney, don ruck. how are you? have a seat. you re being charged with burglary. serious charge particularly given you have a prior charge for burglary that you re on probation for. the purpose of today s court hearing is whether you stay here while these charges against you pend or whether you re released to your mother s custody. the things the court looks at is whether you re a threat to yourself or to the public and whether or not you re likely to return to all future court hearings. if the court finds you re a threat or you re not going to return, you re going to stay locked up. what do you think should happen? i think i should be released on house arrest. because i have a job. i m working. many times the kids say here s what i want. as the lawyer, you try to get that result, but you know at the end of the day that that s not the right outcome. because ultimately if you return a child or place a child back into the environment t
did. i don t know why but it s just it s been driving me nuts. i don t know. i m sure the court wants to try to help him. the ultimate goal is to make him productive in society, but i just don t know given, you know, his age and all the opportunities that have been given to him. i really don t the judge is really faced with a tough decision. i don t envy her. i feel like i m being strangled. it s just i don t know. i have no clue. i don t know what it is, but it s like time ain t going by like it used to. 17-year-old michael is back in detention for the third time. before appearing in front of the judge michael meets with his court-appointed attorney, don ruck. how are you?
how are you? have a seat. you re being charged with burglary. serious charge particularly given you have a prior charge for burglary that you re on probation for.รง the purpose of today s court hearing is whether you stay here while these charges against you pend or whether you re released to your mother s custody. the things the court looks at is whether you re a threat to yourself or to the public and whether or not you re likely to return to all future court hearings. if the court finds you re a threat or you re not going to return, you re going to stay locked up. what do you think should happen? i think i should be released on house arrest. because i have a job. i m working. many times the kids say here s what i want. as the lawyer, you try to get that result, but you know at the end of the day that that s not the right outcome. because ultimately if you return a child or place a child back into the environment that led the child into the system to begin with, you re fosteri
the hardest 30 days i ve ever did. i don t know why but it s just it s been driving me nuts. i don t know. i m sure the court wants to try to help him. the ultimate goal is to make him productive in society, but i just don t know given, you know, his age and all the opportunities that have been given to him. i really don t the judge is really faced with a tough decision. i don t envy her. i feel like i m being strangled. it s just i don t know. i have no clue. i don t know what it is, but it s like time ain t going by like it used to. 17-year-old michael is back in detention for the third time. before appearing in front of the judge michael meets with his court-appointed attorney, don ruck.