“I sometimes drive near the prison where he’s held, and I think, ‘Gosh he shouldn’t be there. Certainly not as long as I had to send him there … That wasn’t the right thing to do. The system forced me to do it.'” That’s retired federal judge Paul Cassell reflecting on the 55-year sentence he once handed out to a guy who sold marijuana.

+ George Toca was sentenced to life in prison when he was 17. He recently made a deal which resulted in his immediate parole. That was good news for him. But it was bad news for hundreds of other prisoners. From Bloomberg’s Matt Stroud: Prisoners sentenced to life as kids just lost their best chance for freedom.