Noisy Teens Sentenced to Manilow Sessions

Call it cruel and unusual punishment—or at least unusual. When a Colorado judge sentences teenagers guilty of blasting car stereos too loud in Fort Lupton, he often imposes a session of enforced "musical misery," the Los Angeles Times reports. That means a Friday night in his courtroom listening to Barry Manilow, the Barney Song or Bing Crosby.

One punishment session experienced by a Times reporter included Manilow crooning, "I write the songs that make the young girls cry"—and the sequestered teens looked like they just might do that. The decade-old program seems to be working, and boasts a repeat-offender rate of just 5%.
(More Barry Manilow stories.)