There but for the grace of God

Alison introduces the saddest story you will ever read -- Ashley Smith:

"If I die then I will never have to worry about upsetting my Mom again."

Reading about what she went through, I realized I have known teenage girls who were almost as mixed up as Ashley was -- some girls just seem to spiral into disaster when they are 12 or 13, and they don't find their equilibrium again for four or five years, until they are 16 or 17. But the girls I knew lucked out, mainly because their parents could afford good lawyers and special schools and stays with relatives in other cities. So the criminal justice system never got the chance to chew them up and spit them out.