Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/insideout-writers/)
The Youth Today/InsideOUT Writers series these past two years has been a critical reflection on the impact of the American justice system on our youth, how these youth learn to navigate through that system and the ways in which many of these youth nevertheless find ways to humanize themselves into healthy young adults.
Near a wooden “Death Row” signpost towering in an orange-lit fog, 25 young people huddled together, smiling and laughing.
For InsideOUT Writers volunteers like Johnny Kovatch, California's juvenile halls hold an infinite amount of potential and opportunity.
ANNISTON, Ala. — Mercy Pilkington’s classroom, at first glance, seems like any other in the nation’s public school system. Novels penned by John Steinbeck and Harper Lee are stacked over a U-shaped row of cubicles. The walls are lined with laminated posters; crayon-colored cutouts of chubby red robins and lime-green pigs are pasted on the room’s sole window. Pilkington, 39, has taught for 11 years.