Are The Criminals Running The Justice System

You be the judge........

Justice on killer's string
Young offender plays puppeteer with his own fate
By MICHELE MANDEL

He is a young Pied Piper who had an entire courtroom jump through his hoops, and all for naught.

But in the justice system, it's the criminals -- even the young ones -- who call the tunes.

The young offender who killed 15-year-old Terrence Ali after a Caribana party in 2003 wanted out of jail early. The 21-year-old had been doing easy time at Sprucedale Youth Facility -- swimming pool, hockey, Kentucky Fried Chicken -- but had suddenly been told earlier this year the good times were nearing an end. No doubt thanks to pressure from Ali's outraged mother, the no-longer "young" offender was going to be shipped out to a real adult jail.

Instead, he came scurrying to Scarborough court last month to ask Justice Russell Otter to release him early to strict house arrest, despite having served just 20 months of his 41/2-year sentence for first-degree murder.

And there was more. If his plea for release was denied, he wanted the judge to send him to a federal penitentiary, rather than a provincial jail -- a transfer supported by the provincial director of Youth Justice Services.

While Otter considered his wish list, the poor killer was moved out of Sprucedale to join the adults at Metro East Detention Centre. According to his father, these last four weeks there have not been easy for him.

"He's been threatened every day," he said.

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