Crime rates are getting higher everywhere, but there’s one California judge who’s taking matters into his own hands.
Image taken from ranchocieloyc.org
Meet Judge John Phillips, the man with one of the smartest, and yet simplest ideas in recent history. After seeing the crime rate of children and young teens below the poverty line going up in Salinas, California, he decided that enough was enough, and he would be making a facility from scratch to help these troubled teens. Any and only any teen below the poverty line living in Salinas is allowed to enroll at Rancho Cielo, a place that teaches important life skills, from cooking to basic societal skills, to make people up to the age of 24 ready for the world of work. Judge Phillips is a firm believer in this method, and it works; the kids all recognize that being in a much more interactive environment is a better place to be learning more mundane content in school, and they even see that the teachers are a lot more understanding and honest with them.
Rancho Cielo has been going strong for 20 years now, and to me, it’s awesome to see the effort being put into getting younger children, teens and adults out of prison (which costs almost five times more than to enroll them in Rancho Cielo), even if it’s in a small area. It makes a difference, and shows the rest of the world that there are other, better options to right the wrongs of these more vulnerable people.
When I found out about this, I was pretty shocked (in a good way). The United States is known for being pretty…uh, brazen, about their correctional system, which does in part influence some of the countries around it, including for us here in Canada. I’m a pretty firm believer that there are so many better ways to properly teach people how to do better in society, especially for younger people. This is definitely a win!
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