Richard webber series#

I try to say something positive about almost everyone. These are his own words, edited for clarity and brevity: Webber, nominated to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1995 and, before that, a Missouri state judge, explained how he conducts the meetings, how they started, and what he hopes comes of them. Louis violence and Better Family Life, I called Webber to ask him to talk more about his meetings with parolees.

Recently, while working on another story about St. Later, as I chatted with the judge, Webber mentioned a curious practice of his: to meet one-on-one with every person he ever sent to prison, as soon as they get released. “I’m here to tell you that I care about you,” Webber told the crowd. At one point, the judge, who is white, knelt before one of the men in the all-black audience to say how sorry he was for sending so many young black men to prison - and to drive home his main point. The reed-thin judge, 73 at the time, acted unlike any federal judge I had seen in my decades of covering the law. One of those speakers was a senior federal district judge, E.

Richard webber series#

At this particular event, the only one of its kind that Better Family Life has conducted, dozens of men convicted of federal gun offenses gathered in a chilly gymnasium to hear a series of speakers on the virtues of setting aside guns in neighborhood disputes. Louis, a city with a long history of some of the highest rates of homicide and other serious crime in the nation. Louis on an assignment for The New York Times a little over two years ago, I visited the nonprofit social services agency Better Family Life to witness an event billed as a novel attempt at preventing gun violence.īetter Family Life produces a number of programs aimed at prevention, victim aid, and prisoner re-entry for St.