Goodbye Bill

I learned today that a young man that I used to supervise had ended his life by standing in front of a train. Great sadness at the violent ending of a life, and also that someone could get that desperate to go through with such a plan. He had always been a troubled young man with significant and deep emotional health problems.

The fact is that there are many like him : frequently the products of traumatic childhoods with a core belief that they are bad and worthless. Prison wings are full of them.

The "mad or bad" debate has been going on for as long as I have been a probation officer,with the pendulum swinging decidedly towards the bad end for a long time now. Just read the tabloids to get a feel of attitudes towards offenders.

Did the system fail Bill, or did Bill fail to fit into the system? Probably a bit of both. It's a stark reminder for me of how important it is to get things right for children at the very early stages. By the time adulthood is reached, the damage is often done and it's really hard for people to make significant changes.