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Op-Ed: Justice For Youth Is the Antidote

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“Backwards or Forward? COVID-19 challenges us to incorporate a public health lens when approaching justice for youth and public safety,” writes Gary Broderick, Legislative Coordinator of RISE For Youth.

This past month, the Sentencing Project released a new report tracking the spread of COVID-19 through juvenile detention centers across the US. At a moment when a global pandemic serves as the backdrop for a national movement demanding we rethink policing policies, this report reminds us that public safety and public health policies are not mutually exclusive issues.

According to the report, there were 512 known coronavirus cases among youth and 618 cases among staff in youth detention centers nationwide as of May 29. Since then, those numbers have been steadily increasing. Solitary confinement has become a standard means for youth detention facilities to socially distance children. In some facilities, frustrated young people have erupted in fights and are met with SWAT teams.    

While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the most vulnerable throughout society, it is especially true for young people who are confined in juvenile detention facilities. All jails, prisons, and detention facilities are hot spots for the coronavirus. These structures have become petri dishes that allow infectious diseases to thrive because people are compelled to live in close quarters, where they cannot practice social distancing and face compromised hygienic conditions. As some states make efforts to release adults from prison to ease overcrowding and control the spread of the coronavirus, youth advocacy organizations and parents have been joined by criminal justice stakeholders to push for the release of children, fighting against the misconception that COVID-19 does not affect the young.   

Photo via Gary Broderick/Facebook

In Virginia, the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) did the right thing when it released just more than 30 young people from the Bon-Air Juvenile Correctional Center — the only youth correctional center remaining in the state — as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. However, the DJJ did not release these young people on its own volition or through its own initiative, but rather thanks to the work of advocates like RISE for Youth, a nonpartisan campaign committed to dismantling the youth prison model by promoting the creation of community-based alternatives to youth incarceration.  

On March 19 RISE For Youth sent a private letter to DJJ Director Valerie Boykin, urging a comprehensive policy response to keep youth at the Bon-Air Juvenile Correctional Center safe and healthy, with their human rights honored. The public version became the #JusticeForYouth #IsTheAntidote policy response that state legislators signed onto. Notably, our statement was signed by both Del. Patrick Hope and Sen. Barbara Favola — the Chairs of the House Committee on Public Safety and Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services, respectively. They were joined by Delegates Jeion Ward, Betsy Carr, Joshua Cole, Elizabeth Guzman, Jennifer Carroll Foy, and Sally Hudson, along with Sen. Ghazala Hashmi. RISE for Youth also successfully rallied the support of Commonwealth Attorneys across the state, who adopted their own open letter to the Secretary of Public Safety.

The DJJ was subsequently forced to acknowledge on April 2 that two staff members, and on April 6 that one youth, had tested positive for COVID-19. This confirmed what youth advocates feared: COVID-19 had made its way into our juvenile detention facilities. On April 10, at a Governor’s press conference, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran indicated that more than one youth tested positive, responding to a question from reporter Max Thornberry of the Northern Virginia Daily. One week later, DJJ announced 25 youth incarcerated at Bon-Air tested positive for the coronavirus, but only after RISE for Youth filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Photo via Gary Broderick/Facebook

By April 28th, 27 youth and 10 staff persons had tested positive for COVID-19, according to the DJJ website. Families are concerned the numbers of cases may actually be higher, given that DJJ has still not implemented universal testing. By the time the facility reached 29 COVID-19 cases, the Bon-Air facility became a hot spot, suffering one of the most significant outbreaks reported among youth facilities in the United States. Youth in Bon-Air were locked in bathroom-sized cells for 23 hours a day with little human contact, and merely an hour to call their family, shower, and engage in some form of exercise. Standardized packets of learning materials that may not reflect the learning needs of each youth have been distributed. This is due to the facility’s school closing due to the pandemic, which reflects a shutdown of education programs common among detention facilities housing 44,000 youth nationwide

Virginia must meet the needs of children involved in the justice system, who disproportionately come from historically disenfranchised communities. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Youth involved with the justice system are members of these marginalized and vulnerable populations and are entitled to special consideration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” In a recent policy statement, the organization said young people in the justice system disproportionately are youth of color, more likely survivors of adverse childhood experiences, and have unmet social, medical, and mental health needs. “Similar to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among historically disenfranchised communities, disparities within the juvenile justice system are rooted in inequities in the social and environmental determinants of health and the failure of public policies to adequately address them,” the group added.

Moving ahead, it is clear a number of things must change in Virginia’s juvenile justice system. First, the responsibility for juvenile justice must move from the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. It is clear that so long as it remains under the jurisdiction of the former, it becomes impossible to make the categorical distinction between kids and adults. We have a responsibility to treat crimes committed by children as the result of the failures of adults — our policy and resource allocation failures. This is more appropriately understood as a public health concern than a criminal justice matter. This shift was recently made in California; their surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, said, according to the LA Times, that “the new model would allow health officials to move toward one focused on addressing early childhood trauma and preventing children from falling into incarceration in the first place.” (Click here for reference on how each state addresses youth justice.)

Photo via Gary Broderick/Facebook

Second, the support provided to youth with the greatest treatment needs must transform away from large, remotely located, and sterile facilities to a truly community-centric treatment model. Healthy Communities Secure Care (HCSC) legislation limits the size — 30 beds or less — and placement of facilities to within the community of origin of the largest number of youth served. This past General Assembly session, Del. Jeion Ward and Sen. Mamie Locke, who both represent the Hampton Roads region, patroned the HCSC legislation (HB551 / SB1033). Hampton Roads is the region in Virginia that sends the greatest number of youth to prison. Del. Ward called the fight for the legislation her Queen Esther moment; the biblical reference points to her willingness to take a stand and risk all to do what is right for Virginia’s children. Research and testimony from community advocates demonstrate that these measures are not only right, they are essential to help children heal, learn and grow. If Bon Air had been a smaller facility with better communication and less bureaucracy, the potential for the virus to spread would have been much less.

This demand for juvenile justice transformation is a part of a comprehensive policy agenda RISE for Youth has adopted for the 2021 General Assembly session. We are advocating for police out of schools, and broader democratic oversight of the police. We are advocating to end all fines and fees associated with youth incarceration that are little more than attacks on the poor. We will also continue to advocate for Black children to be treated as children. That means expanding the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system for youth to age 21 (in alignment with brain science, which documents that youth brains do not fully develop until age 25). This would also impact the scope of the state’s ability to charge youth as adults.

In Virginia, RISE for Youth led the charge to preserve the safety of incarcerated youth amidst the pandemic. The release of young people from Bon Air was a victory for advocacy groups, youth in the juvenile justice system, and their parents. In the midst of a pandemic, society must ensure that its most vulnerable are protected, and their human rights respected. The actions of RISE for Youth and other state and national juvenile justice advocates — who acted collectively to force the releases and increased transparency from our juvenile detention facilities — are a testament to the role of community-based advocacy in holding the state accountable to communities. We deserve a responsive, democratic government that acts swiftly and decisively to solve the problems facing our communities.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect editorial policy.

Top Photo by Alex Matske, via Facebook

Cruel And Unusual Punishment

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Hoping to protect at-risk youth from coronavirus, youth advocacy organization RISE For Youth is calling for the release of juveniles currently incarcerated in Virginia for non-violent offenses.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the focus for many of us is on the health and financial fortunes of ourselves and our loved ones. But one portion of the population that is being overlooked by many is that of juveniles incarcerated in Virginia. As they find themselves trapped within facilities where the novel coronavirus puts populations “at highest risk for infection,” they face a possible death sentence. Their current situation certainly fits the bill for “cruel and unusual punishment,” and this is why non-partisan youth advocacy organization RISE For Youth are calling for Virginia to release juveniles incarcerated for non-violent offenses within the Commonwealth.

As of April 13, there have been over 1.8 million COVID-19 cases worldwide, and over 115,000 deaths, including 5274 cases and 141 deaths here in Virginia. And despite early understandings of the virus’s effects, recent events have revealed that COVID-19 does not discriminate by age. In several instances, hospitalizations have been required for individuals under 20 with no pre-existing conditions.

RISE for Youth, an nonpartisan campaign committed to dismantling the youth prison model by promoting the creation of community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, are currently advocating for the release of incarcerated juveniles, as well as an end to new admissions to juvenile detention and correction facilities, for the duration of the crisis.

While the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has implemented COVID-19 safety measures, Valerie Slater, RISE for Youth’s Executive Director, thinks that Virginia DJJ’s plans are not ambitious enough to keep youth safe.

“We need to make sure that they have immediate and consistent access to health care,” said Slater. “We need to start releasing young people so that the numbers are not so high, and are not at risk of becoming infected or infecting others, simply because we’re afraid to let young people out. We can’t operate based on fear.”

At the beginning of this month, the DJJ announced that multiple employees at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center had tested positive for COVID-19. Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center presently holds 205 juveniles; carriers of COVID-19 are likely to infect two to three others on average. The fact that carriers have a prolonged asymptomatic stage makes it difficult to pin down exactly who may be a carrier.

Despite quarantine measures implemented for those employees, on April 6, DJJ announced that an inmate at the facility also tested positive for COVID-19. The inmate had not been in contact with any of the staff members who’d previously tested positive.

All units were placed on medical isolation after the inmate tested positive; DJJ stated that those who shared the inmate’s unit will be reassigned and the unit itself will be “fully sanitized.” These efforts, along with daily screenings and the requirement that all inmates leaving their units wear masks, were put in place in order to prevent further spread. However, in light of the fact that none of the staff members that tested positive were in contact with the youth who tested positive, Slater believes this will not be the only inmate who has contracted COVID-19.

“Taking a young person’s temperature and asking them a series of questions to determine whether or not they have been exhibiting the symptoms — that’s fine, but it’s not sufficient, especially when you can reduce the numbers,” Slater said.

RISE For Youth Executive Director Valerie Slater. Photo via Facebook

The DJJ first implemented social distancing measures on March 13, including suspension of all visitations, an end to any intermingling of inmates from different housing units, and all large group activities being put on hold indefinitely. These measures are still in effect, and visitation has since been replaced by video conferences and phone calls; families have also been encouraged to send more letters.

However, family members on the outside are aware of the ongoing psychological toll these measures can take on inmates, especially in addition to that of being in a correctional facility in the first place.

“I don’t think like the safest place to get quarantined,” said Sherrod Jenkins, 18, whose brother is currently incarcerated in a Richmond City jail. “They gotta sit in that room and I think it’s gonna mess with their heads.”

RISE for Youth haven’t been in contact with anyone within the DJJ, but they have spoken to judges and prosecutors about their hopes to release the nonviolent offenders.

“We’ve got five commonwealth attorneys who have already signed on, and we’re still working to get more,” said Slater. “There are several legislators who have also signed on to our list of recommendations. So this is something that our leaders in both the legislature and the judicial system are in agreement.”

Releasing these youth is not as simple as opening the doors and letting them out. Many have medical conditions that require ongoing monitoring, as well as educational needs that must be met. Further complicating the situation is the fact that some of the inmates were incarcerated for violent acts. However, RISE For Youth has foreseen these issues and has a working model to use as an example: Albemarle County Jail, where 113 of the 400-plus adults incarcerated at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak have been released. Of the 113 released so far, only one has re-offended since, and it was for a violation less severe than what he was originally incarcerated for.

“They had the judges on board, they had the prosecutors on board, and the defense attorneys — everyone working in concert to make sure that room was in place for those that needed it,” stated Slater.

RISE For Youth are not advocating for the release of all inmates currently incarcerated in Virginia; they believe those who are still a threat to their community should be given appropriate care within correctional facilities. However, they do have a list of circumstances under which they believe inmates should be released.

“Number one, making sure that we’re looking at the kids that are not posing a threat,” said Slater. “Number two, if need be, that they are released on electronic monitoring. And number three, we need to be considering how we make sure that families are supported.”

New York’s Rikers Island was one of the first in the nation to implement a mass release of around 400 inmates with technical, noncriminal parole violations after an inmate was diagnosed with COVID-19. However, over two weeks after the initial announcement, hundreds remain in limbo, and in the meantime multiple inmates have died of coronavirus.

Coronavirus has also infiltrated adult prisons in Virginia. Currently, 65 staff members and prisoners in Virginia’s prison system have tested positive for COVID-19. Central Virginia Correctional Unit #13 and Virginia Correctional Center for Women both have had small-scale outbreaks, with multiple inmates and some staff testing positive. Five of these offenders are currently hospitalized for their symptoms.

As much as Slater is dissatisfied with the DJJ, she wants to work with them and the rest of the community to minimize the damage COVID-19 will do to Virginia’s youth.

“This isn’t a job for the DJJ to do alone,” said Slater. “This is something that should require the help of every agency in every organization that supports and provides services to young people, to ensure that they are supported appropriately.”

Top Image: Bill Dee, CIYP, via RISE For Youth/Medium

The Art Of Richmond’s Youth

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Art 180’s annual Really Big Show will turn art by the river city’s young people into a celebratory block party on First Friday.

Art 180 will be hosting their 15th annual Really Big Show this Friday, June 7th, as part of June’s First Friday festivities. The beloved non-profit will be taking up their entire block in Jackson Ward to display and present a semester’s worth of colorful creative works by Richmond’s youth.

“Having 183 of our program participants come together in one space is pretty exciting,” said Community Program Manager Vaughn Garland. “This is a moment in which we’re not only showcasing our youth’s work, but we’re also pulling people together… We’ll be able to get the youth up onstage in front of a crowd to ask them questions, and have them tell the community about their art, and, oh, they will tell definitely tell you.”

During the event there will be lots of art to see and plenty of activities to enjoy, as well as the staged presentations of each students artwork. There will be displays both inside and outside of the Art 180 building, with more permanent installations housed inside and various student projects outside, coupled with activities centered around those project topics.

“[With] one group, we had worked on weaving with natural materials, so there will be a station set up with something that will give people a chance to experience what that looks like,” said Program Director Taekia Glass.

Each semester, the focus of the classes changes, depending on the artists who are available to teach. As artists come to Art 180 to volunteer their time and serve as program assistants and leaders, they bring with them their own talents and specialties, so during different semesters there may be visual artists, musicians, or performance artists — but there’s always something new for the students to learn about.

For Garland, the volunteers who show up year after year for Art 180’s students demonstrate the best of what Richmond has to offer. “When push comes to shove we as a city always seem to help each other out,” said Garland. “When questioned if something is going to work, the city has a philosophy that, ‘yes, it will always work.’”

This year at the Really Big Show, a class called “Cut, Copy, Paste: Assembling Identity” will be presenting collages and other works that focus on the recognition of self identity through different mediums and experiences. Program Leader Raven Mata and Program Assistant Maurice Singleton created a space at Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School where kids can let their minds run wild and learn to safely express themselves and develop their identities in a creative setting.

For Mata, creating this space was a way to reach out to Richmond youth who might be in the same position she once was herself. “When I was growing up I had problems of not having a lot of people around to help me or my community, and seeing people forget about the kids in my community. When I finally got a chance to go to college, I realized ‘wow, I can be an artist. I didn’t know artists looked like me,’” said Mata. “While you’re out here working on galleries and sets, it’s one thing, but I felt like I needed to do more for my community. I just needed to give it back to the kids around me.”

For Singleton, it was about replicating a mentoring experience he had as a child for the next generation. “When I was a kid my mom put me in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program,” said Singleton. “It opened my horizons. My ‘Big Brother’ changed my life and I learned a lot from him, so I’d love to do that in return to whoever I meet.”

Aside from the work these artists join with Art 180 to do in the middle and high school setting, they are also involved in teaching at the local juvenile detention centers. Mata and Singleton both have worked with students in these settings and couldn’t be happier that they chose to do this.

“You’re in the detention center with all these ‘grown men’ who are actually young kids, and kids at heart. The kids lose faith — they’re in the system, and they don’t see a way out,” said Singleton. “Being someone who was incarcerated and got back out and had to start over, it was one of those things that stood out. Sitting in a cell thinking, ‘I don’t know what tomorrow will look like,’ and ‘I don’t think I have a future,’ and then to be able to get out of that and come back to show those kids I was in the same situation, got my mind right and got to move past that.”

“The idea that people have of the kids in the detention centers being these bad kids is wrong,” said Mata. “There really isn’t much of a difference, they’re all loud and have something to say, but they’re all great kids who just want to have someone look out for them and talk to them. It’s about being able to go into these spaces and showing these majority black and brown kids that artists can look like them and there’s nothing stopping them from doing what they want to do and exploring those concepts.”

Students from the “Cut, Copy, Paste: Assembling Identity” class will be presenting works with a wide range of influence at the Really Big Show. Some students have focused their projects on their dreams of their future careers as bakers, astronauts, and celebrities, while others have used their work to express what it means to them to be a woman in the modern world, or how important it is to protect our planet.

Through this work, these students have learned that they can express themselves in safe ways that can influence others, and that even when things don’t go to plan, you can always find a new road to get where you want to go.

“The reformative nature of art is what we’re all about,” said Mata. “Giving kids some control at a time in their lives where this might be their only avenue of control. Their art can give them the power of self esteem, and they love it — regardless of the mess-ups and challenges.”

This is what the Art 180 program is all about — showing marginalized kids that they matter and that they can be a positive force in society through creative self expression.

“We start with 4th graders, give them a creative and safe space. And then they can join us in middle school and stick around through high school,” said Garland. “We see them for 10 years. In that way we can officially measure what it means to actually change direction 180 degrees. Even though we see change happen in 10 months, 10 years has a really clear marking point for change.”

“To me, Art 180 means family,” said Glass.

Come out to the streets surrounding the Atlas Gallery at 114 W. Marshall Street this Friday, June 7th, from 4 to 9 PM and experience the heartbeat of Richmond’s creative youth at work, and learn more about Art 180’s amazing work in the community. For more info, click here.

Photos courtesy Art 180

Op-Ed: Beyond Bold

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Virginia must find a way to involve local communities in efforts to rehabilitate youth caught in the juvenile justice system, says RISE For Youth Strategic Engagement Director James Braxton.

It was a quiet and introspective ride for the RISE for Youth team on the way to Isle of Wight County on April 18, 2019. We were attending the final Board of Supervisors meeting for the vote on a proposed Juvenile Justice Correctional Center that would, if approved, be built in the county.

We were confident in the rapport we had built with the community advocates of the town of Windsor. We were confident in our efforts to impact the decision the Board Of Supervisors were about to make. But we were contemplating words and actions of board members who seemed to be ignoring the voices of their constituents. This was a historical moment for our state.

I remember we arrived at the meeting a few minutes late to a packed gym of concerned families and advocates. As we took our seats, the board was literally in the process of taking the vote. All I heard was “yes, yes, no.” Then the citizens stood and erupted with cheers.

Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors casts their vote. Photo via Gary Broderick, RISE For Youth

That last “no” was the final vote we needed to win the decision for the people, and it was an amazing feeling. As I reflect on what this decision meant for our RISE team and the impacted youth and families of Virginia, I can’t help but think of all the possibilities for true transformation.

I recall a life changing conversation I had years ago with a friend and colleague, Mr. Richard Ward. Richard was sharing with me a discussion he had with another gentleman about human ingenuity. I admit, I wasn’t familiar with the term “human ingenuity” at the time of our conversation, but it was the way Richard explained it that compelled me.

History teaches us that on December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers were credited for inventing the first successful airplane. Try to imagine the Wright brothers lack of technology, exterior and interior design capabilities, and their lack of state-of-the-art building materials.

Now think about how far we’ve come. We literally went from the Flintstones to Airforce One.

Inevitably, evolution and human ingenuity have allowed us to fly comfortably with some of the most extravagant amenities you can imagine, from full size kitchens, to offices, music studios and bedrooms — all on a single airplane. This evolution changed the way we travel, and as a result, has in many ways brought greater peace and inspiration into our world. Air travel has increased our opportunities for exposure, allowed us to enhance our capability for international collaboration, and so many other benefits.

One definition of human ingenuity is: the way in which human minds have influenced how we think, work, play, construct and conduct friendships and other relationships, interact with each other, find solutions to problems, cause problems, transform things, and rationalize thought. As it relates to the evolutionary work of juvenile justice reform in Virginia, we at RISE for Youth consider ourselves facilitators of human ingenuity. We travel from state to state and city to city seeking the most updated and relevant practices for rehabilitating youth that commit harm. An intricate piece of the reform puzzle is the actual secure care facility itself — that place where youth who have caused the most significant harms receive rehabilitative services.

Virginia is on the verge of creating a “community approved” model that will transform the lives of young people who are systems-involved, as well as providing the resources needed to transform the impacted neighborhoods youth are from, and will return to upon their reintegration back into society. RISE for Youth’s most recent community-collaborative advocacy effort led to a “no” vote in Isle of Wight County.  A “systems model” of secure care was presented by the Department of Juvenile Justice, heavily rejected by the community, and rightfully voted down by the locality’s Board of Supervisors.

In Virginia, nearly 40% of all juvenile commitments come from the Hampton Roads region, specifically Norfolk, Newport News, and Virginia Beach. If we break it down even further by zip code, we find that the areas with the highest juvenile incarceration rates are identical to the areas with the highest levels of poverty. It is no surprise, then, that the highest felony intake complaint is for larceny, at 33%.  

Most of the youth incarcerated are working-age African American males, ages 16-17. To me, this tells a story of lack. A story of despair, abandonment, trauma, targeted policing, and the list goes on. It is time for the state to recognize that the only way to truly reduce crime and increase public safety, while being fiscally responsible, is to strategically direct investments into impacted neighborhoods.

Acknowledging the need to invest fully in impacted neighborhoods makes it clear that the state must collaborate with communities and advocates to create a “community approved model” of secure care that will indeed close the continuum gap and bring local and state resources together. I can only imagine what the possibilities could have been for me, when I was a youth, contributing to the harms committed against my community back in Hampton and Newport News.

I didn’t rob people or sell drugs because I listened to rap music or because I was in a gang. I was a kid, trying to figure out why only one of my classrooms fit my learning style. I was trying to take care of my girlfriend’s newborn baby at 17 years old, while living in poverty, surrounded by substance abuse and trauma. I was working two jobs as a junior in high school, and trying to do it all on my own because I felt like no one could relate, or even cared. Those are the weights I carried, similar to many other young people just trying to make it through their everyday lives. Meeting the needs of struggling youth in an intentional and strategic manner could ultimately help the leadership of Virginia achieve our collective goals of strengthening families and reducing crime.

When we talk about the Wright Brothers, our attention is so often drawn to the sleek exterior airplane designs of today, the complex interior decor and technology, and the many options they offer for hospitality and entertainment, that we forget the most important ingredient: vision. I don’t know about you, but if I were able to meet the inventors of the first airplane, I would have one question: What made you think you could fly in the first place? In a world where flying was not yet possible, where people did not see or understand your vision enough to support it, where even family and friends discouraged you, telling you it was not possible, what made you believe you could change the world in spite of all that opposition?

That type of bold transformation comes from truly great leadership. Leadership that is not afraid to listen, leadership that recognizes all leaders are not visionaries, but understands how to lift up the visionaries around them at the right time to enhance the big picture. Virginia needs these types of leaders.

Virginia needs leaders who will recognize the human ingenuity in struggling communities and impacted families, and bring them to the table at every stage of planning, implementing, and evaluating a community-approved justice center designed to rehabilitate youth and their communities.

Virginia’s top leaders have drawn a tremendous amount of negative press and disparaging headlines recently. It is time for our leaders to truly stand with community during this paradigm shift in juvenile justice. It is time for them to create new, positive, and historical headlines — like this one: “VIRGINIA LEADS THE NATION IN CRIME REDUCTION BY REDUCING YOUTH INCARCERATION AND INCREASING COMMUNITY INVESTMENT, WILL OTHER STATES FOLLOW THEIR LEAD?”

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

Top Photo: James Braxton and the RISE For Youth team attend the Isle Of Wight Board of Supervisors meeting, via Gary Broderick, RISE For Youth

Photo Essay: Art 180 & Performing Statistics March in 3rd Annual Juvenile Justice Parade

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Over the weekend, local organizations Rise for Youth and Performing Statistics joined Art 180 to march in the 3rd Annual Juvenile Justice Parade. With the rallying point starting on Marshall Street across from the General District Court, over 100 participants gathered in support of those impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline. A few powerful community activists, as well as few formerly incarcerated teens, spoke to the masses before the parade commenced. Parade participants included artists, community and faith leaders, teens formerly incarcerated and not, as well as local citizens. Making its way from the heart of downtown, the parade hopped on Broad Street and made its way to Belvidere before wrapping up in Abner Clay Park. The lively and powerful event and the highlight of November’s First Fridays.

Check out some of the best photos from the parade below: 

*Photos by Malik Hall 

 

Poll: Most Virginians support reinstating parole and changes to the juvenile justice system

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RICHMOND – Most Virginians support reinstating parole, treating juvenile offenders differently from adult criminals, and stopping people convicted of domestic violence from buying guns, according to t
[Read more…] about Poll: Most Virginians support reinstating parole and changes to the juvenile justice system