On a recent Tuesday morning, guards escort Malcolm, a 17-year-old from DC, into a circuit courtroom where he’ll soon be sentenced for attempted robbery. As he walks to his seat, slumped and handcuffed in a jail jumpsuit, with an exhausted look on his face, he gives a subtle nod to five boys in the gallery – his friends who have come to witness his fate.
“Let’s pray for Malcolm,” says Jawanna Hardy, an adult chaperoning the teens, as she reaches for their hands. They bow their heads. She asks the Lord for a lenient sentence.
The 14-year-old boy beside her – we’re calling him “Sam” to protect his identity – keeps his eyes open through the prayer, blankly staring down. As the hearing gets underway, he quietly voices his discomfort and fear for his friend.
“I don’t want to be here,” Sam says. “This is real.”