education: old wooden row lecture chairs in classroom

Boost Education for Youth in Solitary With Books, Workbooks, Graphic Novels, Audiobooks

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Advocates often urge the dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline. But for many of our youth, prisons are already their schools. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education first demonstrated that “separate but equal” is an unacceptable doctrine within our school system. Yet the doctrine of separate and unequal continues today through the placement of a disproportionate number of minority students and students with disabilities in youth detention facilities, where they receive educational services that are often underfunded and inadequately staffed.

girls: Artist fingers with brush, doing artwork

Girls in Justice System Need to Express Themselves; We Need to Hear Them

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In a society where those behind bars are unqualifiedly perceived as corrupt and deserving of punishment, “I Am the Voice: Girls’ Reflections from Inside the Juvenile System” reminds us that girls are the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice system, largely due to the criminalization of their trauma. In order to create effective and sustainable systems reform, we must center the opinions of justice-involved girls who are the experts on their lived experiences.

TAG: Isolated thinking man face looking up. Low-key, black and white portrait. Hope concept.

I Found Purpose in Prison, and Not Just to Build Paper Trail for the Parole Board

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I murdered him. I stabbed him 51 times in his sleep, and now his name likely evokes in people close to him funny, warm and wonderful memories of a man they still love. And then it evokes pain because they remember, they realize suddenly after a happy thought and a smile that he was brutally taken from them for no real reason.

trauma: Police officers reads law to female driver

From Trauma to Trust: New Approaches to Police Accountability

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A Newark, N.J., police officer talks about the hostility she experiences from local residents. She is pained that the community won’t look past her uniform — and the assumptions they attach to it — to see that she’s a good person wanting to help.

Young woman speaking at lectern

Equipping Youth to Be Advocates Cannot Be Optional, Baltimore Experience Shows

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I vividly remember the Maryland State Senate hearings on Feb. 1, 2018. I was hardly three weeks into my first legislative session, preparing to give my first-ever testimony against a bill egregious to youth justice reform, while simultaneously teaching myself how one even becomes an “Annapolis advocate.”

raise the age: Young people sit in small courtroom.

New York Raise The Age Is Making Strides Where It Counts

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Four days after New York’s new Raise the Age law began to be implemented in October, I was fortunate to be invited to observe the Youthpart in Brooklyn. The Youthpart is a hybrid court that was created to address 16- and 17-year-olds charged with felonies.

Stressed african-american man holding his head, sitting alone on stairs with notebook and pen.

Making Sense of an Utterly Senseless World

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As I try to grapple with the effects of PTSD and other effects of trauma I wanted to paint a very vivid picture of what a soul on fire looks like and feels like. Through poetry I am able to do this, so far after the actual experience of living in hell and chaos.

Schedule statistics data, analytical indicator sci-fi background

Data Collection, Sharing Crucial in Developing School-justice Partnerships

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The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges released a bulletin last October that details the importance of data in developing effective school-justice partnerships. In the report, NCJFCJ laments that “poor data collection and management strategies” often hamper the effectiveness of school-justice partnerships aimed at disrupting the school-to-prison-pipeline.

cropped image of african american prisoner reading book

Higher Education in Prison Crucial to Teaching About Oppression, Society

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Current conversations about the benefits of providing higher education in correctional facilities revolve primarily around the notion that a postsecondary credential will improve a formerly incarcerated person’s chances of finding employment post-release. There is copious research that demonstrates this phenomenon.