. >>> 17-year-old kymyada is meeting with her attorney, don ruck, to discuss their strategy for courtcase will be tough. it was kymyada's own mother who had her arrested by calling police and claiming she ran away from home. >> i want to take a few minutes to get a sense of what we need to do to accomplish what i anticipate is your desire to go home. >> yes. >> okay. >> so one of the things that particularly concerns me is that not too long ago you had a very similar charge. you were charged with running away, right? >> yeah, but this time it was a misunderstanding. >> okay, well how do we explain when the judge asks, kymyada, now we're here again. what's different this time? >> it was a misunderstanding because at this time i don't stay with my mom. i stay with my god mom. so that's why i was hurt and confused because why would she make this as a runaway and i'm not a runaway? i just needed some time to myself because being a teen mother, that's hard. i told the police, i'm like, it was getting late and she was getting cranky. when she get irritated i just don't know what to do. i th

attorney don ruck represents children in court. >> the perception or misperception of juvenile court similar to the adult court. the reality is the system is much more concerned about getting kids rehabilitated and giving them an opportunity to not having this happen again as opposed to just locking somebody up. one of the challenges that we're going to have is convincing the court and the judge, in particular, that despite you having been here before and lot learned your lesson that you're going to learn your lesson this time and not get into trouble again. kentrell, help me understand some of the things going on in your life that help demonstrate that. >> i'm playing ball. >> where do you play ball at? >> at the court. >> and tell me a little bit about that. what do you do? what kind of -- what position do you play? >> i just play ball. >> and what else do you do besides playing basketball? >> i just wish he never got himself into this. he's still a little kid. i just pray every day like i hope he get out. >> i know you're a very quiet person, but, i mean, you've got to make a deci

before appearing in front of the judge michael meets with his court-appointed attorney, don ruck. >> are you? have a seat. you're being charged with burglary. serious charge particularly given you have a prior charge for burglary that you're on probation for. the purpose of today's court hearing is whether you stay here while these charges against you pend or whether you're released to your mother's custody. the things the court looks at is whether you're a threat to yourself or to the public and whether or not you're likely to return to all future court hearings. if the court finds you're a threat or you're not going to return, you're going to stay locked up. what do you think should happen? >> i think i should be released on house arrest. because i have a job. i'm working. >> many times the kids say here's what i want. as the lawyer, you try to get that result, but you know at the end of the day that that's not the right outcome. because ultimately if you return a child or place a child back into the environment that led the child into the system to begin with, you're fostering the

don ruck, i'll be your lawyer for today. >> 17-year-old morris is locked up for possession of marijuanailing to appear at a former court attorney. -- hearing. before he enters the courtroom to meet with the judge, he meets with his court appointed attorney. >> today the court wants to hear a little bit about what happened and make a decision whether or not to release you today. what do you want to have happen. >> i want to get released. >> okay. did you test positive for marijuana when you came in? >> you did. >> yeah. >> all right. the court's going to ask you why you were using marijuana. do you know how you'd answer that? >> yeah, i would tell them i was with a couple peek, they were smoking marijuana. >> one of the things i know is the probation department is recommending that you stay locked up. we have our work cut out for us. the difficult challenge as a public defender for a child is distinguishing between what's in the child's best interests and what the child wants because in every case, every child wants to get out of here but there's no question that as morris's advocate tha