Summermoondancer wrote:
and if he screws up he will still be just as behind bars as anyone else.

And a 17 year old urban black kid with no money would have long since already been in prison, having pleaded guilty on the advice of his court-appointed "lawyer" that he just met - in a 10-minute hearing where the outcome was foreordained.   He would have no other options, no other choice, no second chance ... simply because he is poor.

Does that matter?   I think it does.   Let us set aside any quaint residual vestige of the concept of equal justice under the law.