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.

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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.

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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.

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