Longtime Judge Now Helps Others Growing Up on Wrong Side of the Tracks

Growing up in a working-class ethnic neighborhood in New York City, Michael Corriero seemed a lot likelier to wind up standing in front of a judge than sitting on the bench himself.

But a strict religious education helped put him on a path toward law school. After 28 years on the bench including 16 as acting New York State Supreme Court justice in charge of Manhattan's Youth Part, he started a new career, the New York Times reports.

After resigning his judicial job last year to become executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, the 66-year-old Corriero is now seeking both the revision of a 1978 juvenile law that allows children as young as 13 to be jailed as adults and to help prevent such tragedies by matching children with mentors.

He recalls an "a-ha" moment on the bench when he was about to impose a required sentence on a 14-year-old who said he had taken a gun to school to protect his girlfriend. The defendant's 10-year-old brother said two older brothers were already in jail.

"I said, 'Get that little kid a Big Brother!',” Corriero tells the newspaper. "It struck home to me: I have the power to act."