ST. LOUIS — A retired St. Louis judge is back in the spotlight focusing on steering youth away from crime. On Wednesday, she partnered with an ex-convict who she sent to prison decades ago. They're working to help young offenders realize there's still time to turn their lives around.
It's a moment they never expected would happen. Nearly three decades ago, former St. Louis Circuit Judge Evelyn Baker sentenced Bobby Bostic to 241 years in prison for robbery. He was released last year after serving 27 years.
"I never expected Bobby to live. I thought he was just so out of control that he was going to die behind the walls but Bobby grew up,” Baker said.
Bostic spent some time watching the undefeated Cardinal Ritter football team practice on the field on Wednesday.
"If I'm not doing this, I'm at the house so this really is my safe space. This is a safe space,” 17-year-old Avery Kemp said, adding that the sport keeps him out of trouble. [I don’t] have to worry about nothing that's going to harm me."
Directly across from where his team practices, other young people are behind bars for committing crimes. Bostic goes there every week.
"I got out in November. I started doing this in January,” he said.
He comes to the St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center to teach young people what they need to become better adults.
"If someone would've talked to me at 16, maybe I wouldn't have gone to prison," he said.
Baker joined his effort.
"Trying to explain to them ‘Ok, you’re juveniles. Your record is going to be sealed. There's no limitation on what you can or cannot do with your lives. You can be whatever you want to be,’” she said.
Now 15 years into retirement, she doesn't like what she sees when it comes to young people committing crimes. She's calling on leaders to take action.
"We have a lot of traumatized kids who receive no therapy. We have kids who have seen people they know or people they are related to who are being killed … we need more childcare and childcare shouldn't end when a kid is 12, 13 or 14 years old. We need places for these older youngsters to go,” she added.