Several years ago, my son got into some legal trouble. He hit another person, knocked his tooth out, and was charged with assault with a deadly

Yes, it is a legal principal older than the Bible and Christianity called "restitution." The government can punish the wrongdoer by imposing fines and incarceration, but that doesn't do much for the victim. All of society benefits from the the wrongdoer being taught a lesson, hopefully being deterred from doing it again, being separated from society for a time so that he might calm down and learn his lesson before returning to society, and being punished. However, the victim does not receive any more of those benefits than everyone else in the community. Therefore, society reserves the right to require, either in addition to or, as in this case, partially in lieu of fines or incarceration, restitution to the victim. the victim in this case has lost a tooth, required dental treatment to restore the tooth or otherwise deal with the gap, may have lost time from work, and endured the pain and humiliation of the assault. He deserves some sort of compenation, separate and in addition to the punishment society imposes that benefits all of us. The DA in this case has accomplished that by offering you the opportunity to reduce your son's sentence in exchange for compensation paid directly to the victim. if you didn't like paying restitution to the victim, you could have let your son pay his full 5 year debt to society. You're lucky. Many times, the DA is only interested in maximum jail time and fines. Here he gave you an opportunity to reduce your son's jail time by paying restitution to the victim. He did  you and your son a huge favor. Not everyone is made such an offer. You should be grateful, not mad. Dana Sack