After losing his bench in a Democratic sweep the night before, Harris County Juvenile Court Judge Glenn Devlin released nearly all of the youthful defendants that appeared in front him on Wednesday morning, simply asking the kids whether they planned to kill anyone before letting them go.

“He was releasing everybody,” said public defender Steven Halpert, who watched the string of surprising releases. “Apparently he was saying that’s what the voters wanted.”

Waiting for this to be used in a statistical study in 6 years showing it was a net benefit.

I would not be shocked. Years ago I read a bunch of papers about the juvenile justice system (I wish I could remember where), and found that every single traditional sentence/intervention is counterproductive. However punitive they are or aren’t, they all involve putting teenagers who have committed crimes in the same place as a lot of other teenagers who have committed crimes; it’s not too hard to figure out why that’s a bad idea.