Pink_Floyd said:
Sure, and having the kid scrub the floors of your house and clean the break dusk off your BMW with a microfiber cloth and a bottle of specialty cleaning fluid that cost more than his mom's car will make him feel great.
Coming from someone with experience in this area, I think it is a great idea. Charging him would have done nothing for him. People need to chill out on their response to minor property offenses and other non-violent crimes (and yes, I have been a crime victim on more than one occasion). We simply don't have the money to keep locking people up for such things, and we as a society have just about given up on rehabilitation. All he would have learned in juvenile detention was how to be a better little thug.