Punishment that does not give anything back to the victim is revenge. Hell, I'd be all in favor of garnishing the kid's wages when he turns 18 to pay back something to the people he's affected. But this kid sitting in a jail cell as punishment doesn't restore anything to Mr. Smedley or the other affected parties. I'm not saying you personally want revenge on this kid, I'm saying that the legal system would be giving the victims not justice but vengeance by sending this kid to jail.

I don't know he's going to be good now. I don't know that he can be rehabilitated and taught to actually weigh the moral value of an action before doing it. But either way, there's no way for him to fuck up again without spending time in jail. I think it's worthy to do what Finland did and give him one last shot to live in society before taking more drastic measures. There is a chance that he can live in society and not reoffend, and given his age I think that's a chance worth taking. Just because he hasn't been incarcerated doesn't mean there are no consequences. He's got a suspended sentence and is being monitored. Those aren't nothing. You literally cannot say "he has no consequences" and be factually accurate. Just because you think they're lenient doesn't mean they don't exist.

I honestly never thought that basically saying "don't jail children as a first line of defense" would be so inflammatory. You're a sick person who has invented a story about an evil kid who sees "right" and "wrong" in black and white and chooses "wrong", rather than a kid who's young and stupid and driven by impulse rather than morals. You use the false version of him to justify what you want to see happen to him. You have lost all compassion for someone who's merely a child, no matter what you tell yourself. "It doesn't MATTER what prison time would do to HIM" - you don't care about him at all. You're not interested in his wellbeing, which is a sick way to be when you condemn someone to prison.