In Their Defence

Often, if my client has been kept in custody for twelve hours before I was contacted, for no apparent reason, it can be a clear sign that we have different priorities in mind, and is probably a guarantee of hostility between us.

Books had always been my escape from the trauma and madness of life.

was put through psychometric testing,

probably was mentally older than many of my peers.

While the adult would often desperately like to help, but find themselves limited by bureaucracy, the child just hears, ‘I’m not interested, you’re on your own’.

how we could work towards changing those instigating factors for them.

really felt that in a lot of cases, by sending children to prison, we were teaching them how to detach themselves, and compartmentalize actions and emotions. I was worried that once they learned this was a way to survive in life, it was going to be hard to undo that back in the outside world.

you don’t need to be clued up.

was spending days indexing documents

is not by any means a cut-and-dried rule.