REFERENTE TEORICO – CONCEPTUAL

Problems in Youth Development and Education

In New Orleans, current rates of suspension and expulsion are several times the national average and schools with the highest rates are overwhelmingly, overcrowded, under-resourced

and attended by low-income students of color.204 Many of these students are not receiving the services they are entitled to under the law. Young people who are pushed out of school by expulsion and discriminatory discipline measures, are statistically more likely to come into contact with the juvenile justice system.205 The student-led youth group RETHINK, issued a report about students of color being channeled into juvenile court as a direct result of the public school system’s rigid zero-tolerance policies for nonviolent offenses. This report states that many of the behaviors that are result in arrest and criminal records are minor offenses that could be thought of as “teachable moments of juvenile development”, rather than criminal behavior.206 Brandon Early, a New Orleans based educator and author describes an educational environment in which students are highly impacted by high incarceration rates of peers and family, and whose frustrations are further “aggravated by the myriad of challenges already posed by an inept

American public school system”207 Problems in Community-Development

A recent documentary film titled, Shell-Shocked: The New Orleans Youth Story illustrates the reality of daily violence in the lives of New Orleans’ youth. In interviews with local youth, their families and community-organizers, reoccurring themes included; inadequate education, a ‘culture’ of normalized violence, extreme poverty, lack of self-confidence and easy- access to firearms. Residents’ comments on the problems communicated messages such as, “It’s almost natural that you know someone that’s got shot, like if you don’t know nobody got shot, something wrong with you” (sic, youth). One youth cited the factors that increase odds of youth committing crime and ending up in prison as, “extreme poverty, extreme lack of self-confidence, depression. Poverty breeds crime.” A local teacher described the hopelessness she has witnessed among New Orleans youth, “seventy-five percent of the kids I work with could not write down their dreams, hopes and aspirations. They had no dreams. They’d lost their ability to hope” Dana Kaplan, executive director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) pointed to the lack of options and opportunities for young people from the poorest neighborhoods: “There are

204 _{Safe Streets/Strong Communities: http://www.safestreetsnola.org/standup4_eachother.html} 205 _IBID

206 _{The Restorative Committee of Kids Rethink Schools Report: http://www.cnvc.org/restorative-justice-}

committee-kids-rethink-new-orleans-schools-report

207 _{Early, Brandon. Developing Voice in New Orleans: The City with the Highest Incarceration Rate in the U.S.} Youth Media Reporter, Dec 14, 2009. Web.

few publicly funded opportunities for youth in New Orleans, particularly many schools, parks and recreational centers remain shuttered almost four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The neighborhoods that youth live in are blighted and plagued by violence…Too often the media depicts youth as the problem, rather than as individuals in the community who bear the brunt of the impact of failed economic and social policies in their city.”208

Problems in Public Institutions and Policies

When the JJPL was first established in 1997, the state of Louisiana was acknowledged to have one of the country’s most inadequate systems for the treatment and prevention of

delinquency.209The New York Times called Louisiana home to the “most troubled” juvenile public defender’s office in the country and reports by Human Rights Watch and the Department of Justice detailed brutal and inhumane conditions in Louisiana’s juvenile prisons. There was virtually no legal representation for children accused facing charges in court and many

nonviolent youth were sentenced to Louisiana prisons known for extreme violence and abuses.210 The large majority of these children were, and still are African-American.”211 While Louisiana has made great strides in reforming its juvenile justice system, it has not made comparable strides at reducing the number of youth transferred as adults. Louisiana has the highest rate of children serving life without parole sentences in the entire country.212

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FLLIC), based in New Orleans, contributed to a report titled, Unlocking Families: Solutions to the Crisis in Juvenile Justice. The report outlined major impediments to juvenile justice reform and youth

rehabilitation, from the perspective of family-members of incarcerated youth who experience extreme financial instability. While they struggle to meet basic needs, they find it increasingly difficult to access and afford positive recreational and educational opportunities for their children.213 Young people who are suspended or expelled from school for minor behavioral incidents can quickly become swept into the juvenile justice system, by the simple fact of being labeled ‘truant’ or ‘deviant’.

208 _{Youth Media Reporter website: http://www.youthmediareporter.org} 209 _{From the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana website; http://jjpl.org.} 210 _IBID.

211 _IBID.

212 _{From the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana website; http://jjpl.org.}

213 _{DataCenter and Justice For Families Report: Families Unlocking Futures: Solutions to the Crisis in Juvenile}

The more contact youth have with the correctional system, the more exposed they are to criminal behaviors. Former New Orleans Juvenile Court Judge, David Bell conceded that the system of locking up minor offenders with repeat offenders was exacerbating the issue of prison recidivism. Judge Bell stated, “you know, we were doing just the most asinine thing in the

world…we were taking the kids that were picked up on a curfew violation, on a truancy violation and we were putting those kids in lockup with the kids that were there for attempted murder, for armed robbery. And you know, if a child got picked up on a Friday for a curfew violation, they sat in jail with these other kids until Monday morning when they went before a judge. And so, you know, that was long enough to create a friendship and to exchange cell phone numbers. And so then we'd see these kids that were curfew violators that then became simple assaults that then became aggravated batteries.”214

Safe Streets/Strong Communities has issued complaints about the public safety system in New Orleans, which costs tax-payers millions of dollars every year while failing to mitigate violence in constructive ways. This reality is evidenced by New Orleans’ unfortunate record of having one of the highest murder rates in the nation. Abuse and corruption within the New Orleans Police Department is another major concern voiced by this organization, citing the overwhelming numbers of local African American residents who pass through the system each year (over one quarter of the city’s total population). This chronic problem “devastates families and destroys the fabric of our communities.215