Youth Radio - Topic: Incarceration

Obama's Budget: Breaking It Down For Youth

rgee — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:47:30 -0600

President Barack Obama released a federal budget proposal this week. Here are some items relevant to young people.

Education:
Despite a proposed freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, President Obama's budget continues to fund programs like Race to the Top, and asks for $77.4 billion for education. Race to the Top is a fund for innovative educational reform. For FY 2012, the proposed funds will be awarded to individual school districts with the best plans for school reform, as opposed to states. This way, even if the state decides not to apply for the money, an individual district could still be eligible.

In addition, Obama would like to increase spending for public schools and maintain the Pell Grant fund at $5,550 per college student. But as a cost savings, the president's proposal limits the grants a student can receive in a year, making many students unable to get summer school aid if they receive a Pell Grant during the school year. The Federal Pell Grant Program provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduates and students applying to higher education programs.

Title X:
President Obama plans to allot $327 million to maintain funding for Title X, the Family Planning program. According to the department of Health and Human Services, Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related health services. The more controversial aspect of Title X provides access to contraceptive services, supplies and information, and especially to low-income families.

Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides family planning to low-income women, and currently receives $75 million from Title X. Opponents don’t want that money funding abortions. According to the New York Times, the House of Representatives has proposed cutting the entire Title X budget which would eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Incarceration:
This year Obama is asking for $606 million for the Federal Prison budget, which among other things will allow for a new prison to be built in Alabama to fight over-crowding, according to KALW News. Within the $606 million,Obama proposes a $57 million increase to “diversion for non-violent offenders,” including prevention and rehabilitation programs. Obama proposes a $50 million cut to juvenile justice programs, directing funds instead to a competitive fund that would be awarded to states that are improving their system for young offenders.

Other bullet points from the prison section of the budget are below:

    * A $38 million cut to the Drug Enforcement Administration;
    * A $588 million cut to the offices of Justice Programs, Community Oriented Policing, and Violence Against Women;
    * A $100 million increase to Second Chance Act programs designed to help inmates re-enter society

Immigration / Deportation
President Obama supported the DREAM Act that would have granted American citizenship to selected undocumented students who met certain criteria. It failed to pass Congress and President Obama's budget doesn't revive the issue. In the budget, Obama is increasing the Customs and Border Protection funding by $263 million and adding $55 million to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget, according to the Huffington Post.

For other comprehensive coverage of Obama's Budget proposal check out Youth Today.

CJNY Pushes For Juvenile Justice Reform

rgee — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:28:33 -0600

This weekend, advocates from all over the country traveled to Washington D.C. to show their support for reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act (JJDPA) and passing the Youth PROMISE (Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support, and Education) Act. The Community Justice Network for Youth held a two-day conference on Saturday and Sunday, and a press conference this morning to urge the Obama administration to change the disciplinary system for young people.

Youth, parents, and advocates will visit their individual legislators after the press conference and show their support for these issues. The overall message of the weekend is that youth are being mistreated while incarcerated, when incarceration is not the most productive solution. In addition, money is being spent in the wrong places.

The speakers at the conference consisted of people with personal testimonials, policy advocates, and directors of youth support services. Youth Radio spoke with two of them to get their personal perspective on the issue.

Rev. Ruben Austria founded the first and only community-based alternative to incarceration program in the Bronx, called BronxConnect. “We took kids with open cases in court, and we convinced the judges to keep them in their own communities in our 12-month program. We got 84 percent of these kids to complete the program, and five years later, these kids were half as likely to get re-arrested, and those who did, were half as likely to commit felonies.” He recently established a new nonprofit, Community Connections for Youth, which will provide support to nonprofits that are interested in serving as alternatives to detention or incarceration.

Austria began doing this work twelve years ago, and soon saw many faults in the juvenile justice system. “Kids who had committed very minor offenses, like hopping the subway turnstyle, shoplifting, or simply being in their own housing projects without proper identification were being incarcerated and never getting out. I saw how the system was so punitive, and targeting only certain young people from low income communities.”

Austria said that when young people are incarcerated in New York, 89 percent of boys reoffend and 81 percent of girls reoffend. He also said that it costs around 240,000 dollars per year to incarcerate one young person. “The money is going to support prisons in upstate New York where the communities are economically dependant on the incarceration of young people from low-income communities. Last month, one young person was killed while being restrained by staff, and another young person hung himself from his shoelaces in New York prisons. It’s a pattern.”

Austria said he was at the conference to support the movement of the people. “The conference has been phenomenal. There are so many people here struggling to do this work in their own corners, who might feel like there are overwhelming odds. But this has created a sense of momentum. We will starve this beast that has been devouring our children.”

Vicky Gunderson is a leading advocate in Wisconsin for keeping kids out of jail. She told the story of her son, Kirk.

“In 2005, when I was out of town, my 17 year-old son stabbed his younger brother and his father multiple times. His father and son were taken to the Intensive Care Unit. I convinced my son to turn himself in to the county police. He was incarcerated in the La Crosse County Prison.

He was supposed to go to court in November, but it was postponed. We had just cut a deal - we weren’t going to be going to trial. However, in jail, the other inmates told Kirk that he needed to give himself a tattoo. They were teaching him how to self-tattoo using a diabetic needle and ink pens. But they got caught. Kirk was taken to the hold. He was feeling anxious and told the guards he didn’t want to be left alone. But they left him alone anyway.

In those isolation cells, they had smoke detection grates. On December 27, Kirk took his own life by tying his sheets to the detection grate and hanging himself.

There are so many other ways that we could be handling juveniles in the system. What my son did was very serious, but when you do assessments and figure out why he took that path, you would see so much more. Kirk had concussions form playing football, and hockey. He was also addicted to oxycotin. He also drank alcohol. Yes, he needed to be accountable, but there were things that led him down that path to start with."

PROMISE Act Needs Support To Help Juvenile Youth

rgee — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:24:34 -0500

Believe it or not, youth are next in line for a federal financial bailout. However, the $1.6 million dollar Youth PROMISE Act is facing major resistance from lawmakers who think it’s too expensive.

The Children’s Defense Fund says, “The bipartisan Youth PROMISE Act recognizes that steps need to be taken away from ineffective policies that focus on punishment and incarceration and toward policies that focus on evidence-based prevention and intervention to address juvenile delinquency.”

In other words, this act is combating reliance on “Zero Tolerance,” and “Three Strikes” policies, which are quick to put youth behind bars, but offer no other services. The Associated Press reports, “The Youth PROMISE Act would distribute money to organizations that form a panel and can show their programs are effective. A city official would be on the panel along with law enforcement agencies, which would also be eligible for funding of their own crime prevention and gang intervention programs."

An excerpt from the summary of the bill on the Open Congress website details some things that the bill would focus on:

(1) assessing and developing standards and evidence-based practices to prevent juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity; and
(2) collecting data in designated geographic areas to assess the needs and existing resources for juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention. Authorizes the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to award grants to local governments and Indian tribes to:
(1) plan and assess evidence-based and promising practices for juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention, especially for at-risk youth; and
(2) implement PROMISE plans, developed by local PROMISE Coordinating Councils (PCCs), for coordinating and supporting the delivery of juvenile delinquency and gang prevention and intervention programs in local communities.

The AP describes one organization affected by the recession called Homeboy Industries, that employs ex-gang members. Their mission statement reads: “Homeboy Industries assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education.” They run businesses like Homegirl Cafe and Homeboy merchandise. However, because of a lack of funding, they were forced to lay off 300 of their staff. The Youth PROMISE Act would give money to groups like this one.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities Juvenile Justice Data Map

denise — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:26 -0600

A new interactive map of juvenile justice disparities across the country has become available to the public. The tool also provides state-by-state statistics, like California's drug arrests between 2003 and 2006, which show that the number of African American youth arrested increased by six over that period, while the number of Latino youth arrested for similar offenses decreased by 21.

The San Francisco based nonprofit W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) released the “Racial and Ethnic Disparities Juvenile Justice Data Map” Wednesday. The Institute reports this the first time state-by-state data has been made available to the public. The map contains the following information for each state.

One-Day Count Incarceration Data: Publicly available counts and rates of youth in juvenile residential placement facilities on any given day by state, collected every two years from 1997-2006. The BI has displayed the information by the race/ethnicity of the juveniles.

Annual Juvenile Justice System Data by Decision-Making Point: The rate of involvement of youth in the juvenile justice system by decision-making point (arrest, court referral, secure detention, transfer, etc), where available, at the State and County levels.

Other Information Including: 1) Each State’s Three Year Plan for reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC); 2) Contact information for each State’s Juvenile Justice Specialist and State DMC Coordinator; 3) States’ statutory guidelines for detention and age of juvenile jurisdiction; 4) Information about each State Advisory Group (SAG), which is responsible for monitoring and supporting their state’s compliance with the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act (JJDPA).

(via W. Haywood Burns Institute)

Some notable data from a quick scan of the map's California statistics:

-In 2006, there were 3,024 Latino youth arrested for various offenses—making them the racial group with the highest number of arrests.

-The number of black and Latino youth incarcerated continues to increase.

-In 2007, there were 21,201 secure detentions of Latino youth, almost double the number of cases involving black youth.

Previously:

Inside and Out

lissa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:46:21 -0500

When Youth Radio’s Orlando Campbell visited San Quentin State Penitentiary, he connected with 26-year-old Christopher Shurn. They happened to meet just days before Chris’ release. For Orlando, a rapper who performs under the name Roach Gigz, it was natural for him to mix his own lyrics with Chris’reflections on how incarceration has shaped his life. That’s what you’ll hear in this story.