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On both sides of the law

Updated: 12/5/2005

by Brian Hancock , Scott Larson

On June 5, 2001, Brian Hancock graduated from Seton Hall Law School in Newark, New Jersey. Though he was one of nearly 500 graduates, his story behind the story is significant to those of us in the business of reclaiming troubled teens. Ten years earlier at age fourteen, Brian was locked up with the very real prospect of spending the rest of his life in adult prison. This article recounts his story as told to Scott Larson.

Hungry, frightened, and clothed only in my underwear, here I was, 14 years old, curled up in the corner of a police station cell trying to keep warm. Fear gripped my heart, as thoughts of suicide plagued my mind.

A million questions were swirling around in my head that night. How had all this happened? Is it just a bad dream? Will I ever see the light of day again?

Facing the possibility of spending the rest of my life in prison, sleep didn't come to me that first night in a jail cell. Instead my mind was on rewind, trying to understand just how I had gotten to this point.

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Keywords: troubled teens both sides law