Constance Hartman

She had known, as soon as she saw him, what his fate would be. For Constance, his young good looks and slim well-proportioned body were all too few and far between in her courtroom. Constance had been a senior judge in the newly termed, ‘Young Offenders Court', for five years. She had served the bench well, enjoying the stature of her worthwhile profession and taking pride in her quality decisions regarding the future of her young offenders.

It had been the introduction of the ‘Punishment Centers' that had made her see a side to herself that she had never in her wildest dreams thought that she had possessed.

She had felt guilty at the thrill that had run through her body the first time that they had all been invited to a model and experimental Punishment Center in another state.

She had not dared look at her fellow justices as she had watched a naked teenager being soundly strapped by a woman police officer. The image had played constantly on her mind… and even in her sexually oriented dreams. It had been a source of excitement to her. The model center had quickly found that the effectiveness of center was increased by the use of all female personnel. The shame and humiliation of the youth was increased to such an extent that many of the more persistent law breakers rarely visited twice.

For the state the financial benefits had been extraordinarily good. Instead of the cost of hundreds of staff to administer probation or run boot camps, thirty or so young women could process up to five offenders a day. If too many turned up at one time they were left in the basement cells until they could be dealt with. The whole process of court to punishment was done in private and therefore, a one time offender could be sentenced, takes his punishment and have none of his friends or employers know that he had committed any crime. This was one of the reasons that offenders were given twenty-eight days to attend.

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When the centers had opened within her own jurisdiction, she had been one of the first to sentence a young offender to its corporal methods of punishment.

She had quickly discovered that her delight was heightened only by the good-looking young boys as they were being punished.

Unfortunately the sentenced youth could attend at anytime within a twenty-eight day period and as such her visits were often filled with disappointment. It was only as she became on personal terms with some of the staff at certain centers that they would quietly and with discretion let her know who had arrived; or rather what the young boy… or sometimes girl looked like.

She stifled her imagination as she looked at her fellow judges. She was quite sure that as senior judge her recommendations would be well heeded. Better than that, she knew that she was quite adept at sowing the seeds for someone else to make the right decision. Constance also had certain knowledge, although the subject was never broached… that her fellow justices also took a keen delight in the strapping of a good looking young boy.

"Well he is pleading guilty; without representation he is at the mercy of the court, which is a foolhardy action, brought about I believe, because he is full of remorse and intends to not make the same mistake again." She paused. "I really do believe that he is full of remorse."

"Well there is not a lot we can do. I suppose that it is no excuse that the limit has only been dropped for four days. I suppose he will be about the first to be prosecuted under the new limits."

"But only one milligram over it, if he had waited and had the sample taken in blood, he would have been clear."

"I know, the arresting officer has stated that he waived his right to wait for a doctor and a blood sample, it says he was full of self-guilt and just kept saying he was sorry… but now we have to decide… the options aren't many."

Constance looked at her companions.

"Well there aren't any really. I obviously won't send him to jail of course, and the probation services are stretched to capacity and are taking on no more new cases, so there is only the punishment center. If we defer it to the next sessions, they will want to know why… and what can we tell them… that he was utterly contrite?"

"I know… it just seems unfair… that we get belligerent, obvious diehard drinkers that get caught on their thousandth journey, having got away with it time and time again… and of course they will use every ruse... including of course delaying things for as long as possible by waiting for a doctor, whom they hope will be on another call…oh well."

Constance read the pre-court report as she pretended to consider what to do. "He is a very unfortunate young man. He lost both parents in a car accident last year and has been living in an apartment by himself since then. He has no record of any kind and seems to be quite a responsible young man, apart from this."

The dark haired judge spoke, her voice low and thoughtful. "Yes it must have been a traumatic year for him, since he lost his parents… and yet he has kept to his work and has not gone off the rails."

She looked pensive for a moment and then spoke again.

"There is one thing… if we were to send him to the one center we all know… if you get my meaning, We could make sure that… well at least afterwards, he would get… well, erm… more looked after… urm less traumatic… do you both think."

The senior judge looked at her companion, a smile spreading across her face. "Sometimes Kate, I think you are heaven sent for this court. Yes of course…all agreed? I will just change the form from any center to Center No. 19"