When the pandemic hit last March, David was visiting his family on a furlough from the Swanson Center for Youth. That’s a state juvenile facility in Monroe, La. He was finishing up a four-year sentence that began when he was 17.
David (we’re not using his last name to protect his privacy) was planning on going “mudding” that weekend with some friends — riding all-terrain vehicles in a mud pit. But Swanson said he had to come back a day early.
On the drive back, David’s parents worried silently that they wouldn’t see him for a long time. “We try not to put our feelings on him,” says his mother, Judy. “But of course, he knew we were upset … all three of us cried when we left.”
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