It was a crisp morning on State Street when I saw him again: Michael, slouched against a brick wall, his few possessions bundled beside him. “Wayne!” he said with a half-smile. “ You’re just in time.

Prior to his transfer to the school this year, Byers had a violent criminal record in Buffalo that included an armed robbery in August 2007 in which a victim was shot in the arm, and the June 2007 ...