I read this report the other day that said in 2014, the US government arrested over 1.2 million children. I'm not going to soften this statistic by calling them "juvenile offenders" or "minors". Children is what they are.

When I was younger, we lived close(ish) to the old Bonnytoun reformatory. There was this boy, James, he used to run away I think. And he would always stop at our house and my dad would let him help in the garden, give him some food, sometimes a cigarette(he was probably around 16

We wouldn't see him for a while and then eventually, James would pop back in. One day we just never saw him again.

Today I've been thinking so much about James and all the other boys just like him.

There's this report that was published in 2008 by the Center for Justice and Crime Prevention called 'Learning to be Lost: Youth Crime in South Africa". And that's what it is, right? It's children learning to be lost.

Learning that the system doesn't care that they're poor, it doesn't care that they need help, it doesn't care that they are actively being shaped by the violent environments they are raised in and around.

I know this is a really heavy train of thought for a Sunday,

But there has to be a better way.

Tomorrow Grace turns 4. This evening we hopped into bed and listened to Christmas songs and I sat there for a bit watching them sleep. I want them to live in a world where everyone has a fair chance and a second chance if they need it.

A child growing up in Hanover Park, should be born with every chance for success that a child born in Claremont has. Creating seperate a society for the children we see as "bad" will only continue the perpetual cycle of reoffending (which is between 55 and 95% for South Africa).