No Place for Kids: Youth Incarceration in America

Hello! We are the Youth Incarceration group. We are working raise awareness on the many issues that affect incriminated youths 18 and under. Some of these issue include racial profiling, inability to get jobs, and being charged as adults. New York is the only state that automatically sentences 16 year-olds as adults.

Interview at District Attorney’s Office

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By Julia N. Last Wednesday at 11AM we visited the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for an interview with three employees in the Crime Prevention Division. Sadie’s contact, Frank Laghezza, let us speak with him along with his colleagues, Mary Hughes and Teri Fabi, about their work. Mary Hughes is the Confidential Assistant District Attorney. She…

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By Sadie On January 24th, my social justice group visited an ATI which stands for Alternative to Incarceration. This ATI was a place where mothers can serve jail/prison time but they don’t have to be separated from their children. It is part of Housing Plus Solutions and is the only program in the country of…

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By Julia N. Today we went to the a gallery with Richard Ross’ exhibit called “Juvenile In Justice.” We say many graphic pictures of the conditions that these youths have to live in. It was disgusting and moving to see the cells and read the quotes from the people who were photographed. All of the…

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Our teacher, Sarah sent us this article about how more police on the streets reduces crime. Read the article to find out more! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/nyregion/police-have-done-more-than-prisons-to-cut-crime-in-new-york.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

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By Sadie Q: In your opinion, what is the best way to prevent youth incarceration ? A: The best way to improve youth incarceration is to give kids more options in life. Whether it be educational opportunities or job opportunities, if a youth has no option but to join a gang, he will. If he…

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By Julia N. On December 12, at around 5 o’clock in the evening, we went to Lauren’s house to watch Ken Burns’ documentary on the Central Park Five. The Central Park Five were a group of boys (four black, one Latino) who were arrested for the rape and severe attack of a white female jogger…

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On Wednesday December 5th my group conducted an interview with Elizabeth Webster. Liz works in the communications department at The Innocence Project. The Innocence Project was the organization that I had decided to take charge of for our projects. Towards the beginning of the year I started doing research on the Innocence Project. My first…

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By Julia N. On Monday, December 3 we (the youth incarceration group) interviewed Jordyn Lexton on her new organization called Drive Change. Ms. Lexton is a former English teacher at Rikers Island. She became interested in the topic of youth incarceration while taking a theater class during her senior year at Wesleyan. The class was…

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By Sadie On Sunday November 11th, we had an interview scheduled to talk to Ilana Brunner who works in the Washington D.C. office of Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott. Mr. Scott is working on a legislative called the PROMISE Act. PROMISE stands for Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education. Pennsylvania invested 60 million…

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Hello! We are the Youth Incarceration group. We are working raise awareness on the many issues that affect incriminated youths 18 and under. Some of these issue include racial profiling, inability to get jobs, and being charged as adults. New York is the only state that automatically sentences 16 year-olds as adults.