Juvenile Prison System

Fixing the prison system.

by 28jacobs

Since Ramel has worked at Rikers Island Jail for 19 years, he gave us lots of information on the prison system and what goes on inside of the jail daily for kids and adults. Ramel has been a guard for all types of ages who are in different circumstances. He has to take over an important role by monitoring people and their safety. Yet at the same time he has a relationship with inmates in times they don’t have anyone to talk to. Ramel also guards people 16-18 and sees a range of emotions between teens that could have caused them to end up in jail. Many teens in jail have depression and need things they aren’t accessible to in a jail cell at times such as programs or even role models. “Most of the kids don’t have a positive role model in their life which might have created their hard-headed, dangerous mentality.

by 28miloo

We met with Ramel Small. Ramel is a guard for Rikers and other prisons. Ramel worked with all ages from 16 all the way to senior citizens he also worked with mentally troubled prisoners. Being guard for Rikers prison is hard because there are three officers for 50 prisoners and they all have to make rounds to make sure no one commits suicide or there are no fights that are happening. One time he saved a kid from committing suicide because he talked to him and he told him to “control the controllables”. Ramel tore his labram while breaking up a fight. Rikers has a school program for youth to try to set them up for the future.

by 28oskark

We met with Ramel Small who is a prison guard at ritkers island and other prisons. Ramel has been a guard with many different ages of people, ranging from 16 years old to senior citizens. The younger prisoners would stay in the “bubble” which is where they stayed. The bubble was one of the main places where fights would occur because there was only 3 guards compared to the 50 prisoners. There have been instances when Ramel was in danger of being attacked, one time all 50 of the prisoners wanted to fight him but he ended up being fine.

by 28jacobs

We met with Jarrell Daniels and heard his oppionon on ways to kids getting involved in gang violence and ending up in jail. Justice embasseder is a 12 week seminar that helps young people who have been incarated. Jarrell spoke about his expriences growing up in a gang setting and being incarated at a young age. Daniels changed as a person advocating for kids rights and countuining to be a role model to many kids. He belives that kids in low income communties should be given more recoruces and oppurtunity.

by 28oskark

My group and I met with Jordyn Wilson from the sentencing project. I learned how harsh the conditions are for the children in prison they are pretty much abused and this needs to change. Young people in Maryland can be charged as an adult in 30 plus ways and she says young people should not be charged as an adult. Jordyn thinks that these young kids should fight for there rights and make there voice heard.

by 28miloo

We met with Jarrell Daniels. Jarrell Daniels works for Center For Justice. Jarrell was a gang member and was indicted. Jarrel and his foundation want to reduce gang violence in low to moderate income neighborhoods. In New York City Brownsville Brooklyn, Bedford Stuyvesant South Bronx and South Jamaica Queens are most affected by gang violence. I learned that there are 40,000 things you can’t do once you get a felony. When youth go into the prison system they start to become sinical of the government. The biggest issue that the Center For Justice Foundation does is to help kids get back on their feet once they get injured.

by Ryan Small

Today, I interviewed Jarell Daniels of the Justice Ambassadors. He is a Columbia University graduate who helps the youth who are affected by the government prison system in any way shape or form. Jarrell used to be a member of the BLOODS, a gang originally formed in the 70’s. My social justice group, studying the Juvenile Prison System met with him over video and learned a whole lot more about our topic. He talked a lot about the importance of building a community that you could trust, and how implementing organizations similar to his into normal society will prevent the likelihood of juveniles going back to prison. His fondation in particular runs a course for 18-25 year olds, all of which are underprivileged kids. Jarrell’s goal is to change systems, foster institutional change, and resolve issues in the community.

One of the main things that he told us while we chatted with him was another common theme; the most incarcerated youth groups were all living in marginalized communities and had poor living conditions. We learned that your access to healthy food in your community, your education and even your housing conditions have a big impact on mental health and your likelihood of being imprisoned. Neighborhoods like East Harlem, Mount Vernon in The Bronx, and some areas of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn are all places that have low incomes in NYC. All of this info Jarrell has given us came from personal experience. As a former gang member and someone deeply affected by the prison system (being arrested and incarcerated for 6 years of his life) he has great insight on this topic. Seeing how it messes with people’s lives and his in particular, he used that as a driving force, an inspiration even, to turn his life around and start the Justice Ambassadors. Now he is a scholar who creates opportunities for those who were in similar positions as him when he was younger. That right there, is how you create change. The last piece of advice Jarrell gave us was to sign up for different programs, and initiatives to try and keep the youth out of the government prison systems. He told us to research the Next Generation Politics, a group focused on spreading awareness about this issue and ways to help through activism and donations.

Thanks to our meeting with Jarrell Daniels, I learned about different ways to help juveniles around the city and got a little bit more information on why and how the prison systems impact our communities.

by 28jacobs

My group met with Jordyn Wilson, who is a youth justice campaign associate at the sentencing project. The sentencing project helps kids who get trialed as adults but are juveniles. and works to impact youth incarceration. We all collectively learned about the experiences of kids in jail. We also learned that “Other countries have more stable facilities and systems for incarcerated people and go through less trauma throughout their experience.” Jordyn informed us with more in-depth information relating to kids in jail and allowed us to view various perspectives on this. issue.

by 28miloo

We met with Jordyn Wilson from the sentencing Project. The Sentencing Project tries to help kids that are getting tried as adults to be tried as juveniles. I learned that putting children in the adult system messes up their mental health . I also learned putting children in adult prisons doesn’t help at all. Race also goes into it as Black kids are 10 times more likely to be incarcerated than white kids. In Maryland juveniles can be charged for adult crimes in 30 plus ways.