The sentences that are handed out by Spanish juvenile judge Emilio Calatayud would in many courtrooms sound like a joke.
But the 48-year-old magistrate has soared to national fame thanks to his eccentric sentences, which have reduced juvenile delinquency in the southern city of Granada.
Juveniles convicted of beating up a homeless man are ordered to distribute food aid to beggars. A suspect charged with setting a house on fire is instructed to assist a fire brigade.
A motorcyclist caught without compulsory insurance is told to draw a comic about the incident and visit victims of traffic accidents at a hospital.
Calatayud, the son of a judge, has not forgotten his restless youth, during which he nearly turned to crime himself, the daily El Mundo reported.
The popular magistrate now claims to have a good understanding of the causes of juvenile delinquency, and says almost 80 percent of the youths whose cases he handles are rehabilitated.
"People must pay for what they do, but that is not enough," says Calatayud, who deals with some 800 cases every year, from pickpockets to murderers.
A reckless driver, for instance, was ordered to patrol the streets with a traffic policeman for 100 hours. A Senegalese immigrant who sold pirated CDs was "sentenced" to learning Spanish.
A young computer hacker who saddled several companies with thousands of euros' worth of damage was ordered by the judge to give 100 classes to students of information technology.
Calatayud usually offers such possibilities as alternatives to internment and other punitive measures or as complementary to them.
"He opened my eyes," said Andres, 20, who is determined not to commit any more robberies after Calatayud "sentenced" him to finishing school and getting a driving license.
Justice should not be based on a spirit of vengeance or condescension, says Calatayud, who works in collaboration with psychologists and sociologists.
Spanish legislation on juvenile crime has been criticized as lax, but it has produced good results when applied by Calatayud, whose office is filled with gifts from grateful parents, El Mundo reported.
The likes of Calatayud are laughed at by champions of tough justice, but experts say such an approach often makes sense in the case of juvenile delinquents.
"There are many types of offences, such as thefts in supermarkets, which people stop committing as they grow older, but if you place those adolescents into the wrong system, you turn them into criminals," penal law professor Esther Gimenez-Salinas told the daily La Vanguardia.
She tells the story of a young man who was ordered to work in the garden of an old lady whom he had pushed on the street, breaking her leg.
"When the criminal gets to know the victim outside court, not as an enemy, he repents," Gimenez-Salinas added.
Two-year-old Xu Haoyang (徐灝洋) has likely just months to live — but the only medicine that can help his rare genetic condition is not found anywhere in China and closed borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic mean that he cannot travel for treatment. Instead, his desperate father, Xu Wei (徐偉), has created a home laboratory to create a remedy for the boy himself. “I didn’t really have time to think about whether to do it or not. It had to be done,” the 30-year-old said from his DIY lab in an apartment building in southwestern Kunming. Haoyang has Menkes syndrome, a genetic disorder
WIDE REOPENING DISCOURAGED: A study from Peking University has suggested that lifting restrictions in the style of the US, UK and others would be catastrophic China would face a “colossal outbreak” on a scale beyond anything any other country has yet seen if it were to reopen in a similar manner to the US. That is a prediction based on statistical modeling by researchers at Beijing’s Peking University. A switch from China’s current COVID-19 elimination strategy to a US-style approach with few restrictions would lead to as many as 637,155 infections per day, according to the study, which was published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. That would be the largest daily figure reported by any country since the start of the
BURNING, LOOTING: The demonstrators called for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to step down over failure to deliver infrastructure, among other complaints Solomon Islands police yesterday fired tear gas in the capital, Honiara, as crowds of protesters set fire to buildings, including a police station, and looted shops in an eruption of anger at the government, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported. The protest was led by people from the Pacific nation’s largest island, Malaita Province, about 120km from the capital. They were demanding that Solomon Island Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare step down over failure to deliver promised infrastructure among other complaints, RNZ said. The protest began peacefully, but most schools and businesses in Honiara were closed by the afternoon as crowds tried to enter the
MOBS, TEAR GAS: Anti-government protests deteriorated and led to looting and arson, as the Pacific nation’s PM said he regretted a return to the country’s ‘dark days’ Rioters torched buildings in the Solomon Islands’ capital of Honiara yesterday, targeting the city’s Chinatown district in a second day of anti-government protests. Eyewitnesses and local media reported that crowds had defied a government lockdown to take to the streets. Live images showed several buildings engulfed in flames and plumes of thick black smoke billowing high above the capital. It followed widespread disorder on Wednesday, when demonstrators attempted to storm parliament and depose Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Businesses operated by Honiara’s Chinese community were looted and burned, prompting Beijing’s embassy to express “serious concerns” to the Solomons’ government. The embassy “made representations
RSS