Juvenile Justice and Mass Incarceration Mini-Plenary Sessions and Workshops Ending Zero Tolerance School Discipline Policies and the Criminalization of Children at Increasingly Younger Ages Mini-Plenary Tuesday, July 24 4:30 – 6:00
Profiting from Mass Incarceration: The Privatization of Prisons Tuesday, July 24 4:30 – 6:00
Promoting Fair and Developmentally Appropriate Sentencing for Youths Tuesday, July 24 4:30 – 6:00
Elaine Jones, Former Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education Judith Browne-Dianis, Co-Director, The Advancement Project Janet Connors, Community Fellow and Trainer, Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University and Leadership Team Member, Mothers for Justice and Equality Ricardo Martinez, Co-Director, Padres y Jóvenes Unidos The U.S. Department of Education projected that there were more than 3.3 million out-of-school suspensions and 128,570 expulsions in 2006. Zero tolerance school discipline policies are a key feeder system into the Cradle to Prison Pipeline™, increasing the use of suspension and expulsion for students who do not pose a threat to school safety, disconnecting students from school and criminalizing children at increasingly younger ages. How can 6-, 7- and 8-year-old children be arrested and handcuffed on school grounds for nonviolent offenses without a huge community outcry? This session will address the role of zero tolerance school discipline policies in fueling the drop out crisis and profile compelling organizing strategies that have engaged youths and parents directly affected by harsh discipline policies in successful campaigns to modify school policies and procedures, to institute restorative justice models, and to create positive learning environments for all children. Alex Friedmann, Associate Director, Human Rights Center, Associate Editor, Prison Legal News Tracy Velazquez, Executive Director, Justice Policy Institute Zach Schiller, Research Director, Policy Matters Ohio America is the world’s biggest jailer and our prison population has exploded from 300,000 to more than two million in a few short decades. Over the past 15 years, the number of all prisoners in the United States increased by 49.6 percent, while private prison populations increased by 353.7 percent. With combined revenues of $2.9 billion in 2010, the two largest private prison companies—Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group—reap profits from public dollars while aggressively expanding their reach. The Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) has proposed to 48 governors that they contract with CCA to run their prisons for 20 years with a 90% guaranteed occupancy rate. Learn about the role these two corporations, aided by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), play in fueling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline and mass incarceration of Black males and what you can do to stop the rampant growth of incarceration and privatized prisons. Erin Davies, Public Policy Attorney, Children’s Law Center, Inc. Gregory Johnson, Field Organizer, Campaign for Youth Justice Jody Kent Lavy, Director & National Coordinator, Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth Kim McGill, Director, Youth Justice Coalition In the 1990s policymakers across the country expanded laws sending more children to adult court, imposed mandatory sentencing laws, and lowered the age at which children could be prosecuted as adults. Today approximately 200,000 children and youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year. More than 2,500 people have been sentenced to die in prison with no opportunity for parole for acts they committed as children, and the vast majority of these individuals are people of color. New research reveals that children who have committed serious crimes are capable of becoming productive members of society because their brains are still developing. As the Supreme Court found in Graham v. Florida, “juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders.” Learn about action you can take to promote fair and developmentally appropriate sentencing policies and rehabilitative services for incarcerated youths, end the holding of children in adult jails and challenge death in prison sentences for juveniles.
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Innovations in Juvenile Justice System Reform, Diversion, and Reentry: Moving Children Out of the Pipeline Monday, July 23 1:30 – 3:00
Corryne Deliberto, Senior Domestic Policy Advisor, World Vision Dennis Atherton, JDAI Technical Advisor, Annie E. Casey Foundation James Bell, Founder and Executive Director, W. Haywood Burns Institute Pili Robinson, Director of Consulting, Missouri Youth Services Institute Wilfredo Lopez, Domestic Violence and Restorative Justice Facilitator, Homeboy Industries Every night approximately 87,000 youth are housed in juvenile facilities and 10,000 youth are held in adult jails and prisons. Children of color constitute about two-thirds of youths in the juvenile justice system. This session will examine juvenile justice reform strategies including front end diversion programs to prevent children from entering the juvenile justice system; approaches such as the “Missouri Miracle” that have significantly reduced recidivism through a focus on rehabilitation of youths in detention facilities; and promising reentry programs to facilitate children’s return to community.
Meeting the Educational Needs of Youth in Detention
Angelica Salazar, Children’s Defense Fund David Domenici, Co-Founder, See Forever Foundation David Sapp, Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California Lia Venchi, Teacher, Stadium View School
Tuesday, July 24 10:45 – 12:15
Children in the juvenile justice system disproportionately struggle with learning disabilities; nearly half function below grade level. The quality of education in juvenile justice facilities varies dramatically within and between states. Discuss the great educational challenges facing detained youth and best practices for ensuring children truly benefit from this “last-chance opportunity” to get back on track.
Reaching Children of Incarcerated Parents
Ann Adalist-Estrin, Director, National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated The Rev. Mark V. Scott, Associate Pastor, Azusa Christian Community Yali Lincroft, Child & Family Policy Consultant, First Focus Campaign for Children
Monday, July 23 3:30 – 5:00
Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline: Successful State and Community Efforts Tuesday, July 24 10:45 – 12:15
More than 1.7 million children have a parent in prison, and about 45 percent of these children are Black. Black children are more than seven times as likely and Hispanic children more than two and a half times as likely as White children to have a parent in prison. More than 800,000 parents of minor children are in prison. About eight percent are mothers. How are children affected by the incarceration of their parents? How are entire communities affected by intergenerational incarceration? This session will focus on effective strategies for addressing the unique needs of children of incarcerated parents. Avery Irons, Director of Youth Justice Programs, CDF-New York Barbara Best, Director of Foundation Relations and Special Projects, Children’s Defense Fund Mary Joseph, Director, CDF-Louisiana Portia Ballard Espy, Chief Administrative Officer, CDF Southern Regional Office The Rev. Emma Jordan Simpson, Executive Director, CDF-New York
The Cradle to Prison Pipeline is a national crisis that leaves a Black boy born in 2001 with a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a one in six risk of the same fate. The pipeline is fueled by racial disparities, pervasive poverty, trauma, inadequate health and mental health care, gaps in early childhood development, disparate educational opportunities, chronic abuse and neglect, and overburdened and ineffective juvenile justice systems. Learn how CDF-led coalitions in New York, Massachusetts, California and Mississippi have organized to take action on specific pipeline impact points, such as closing costly and ineffective youth prisons and promoting alternatives to zero tolerance school discipline policies.
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Don’t Forget the Girls! Wednesday, July 25 1:30 – 3:00
Joffe Wright, Student, Albany State University K. Shakira Washington, Human Rights Project for Girls Kathy Szafran, President & CEO, Crittenton Services, Inc. Winifred Green, President, Southern Coalition for Educational Equity, and Board Member, Children's Defense Fund Girls are the fastest growing population in the juvenile justice system and face increasing risk of entering the Cradle to Prison Pipeline and adult prisons. A Black girl born in 2001 has a one in seventeen lifetime chance of going to prison and a Latina girl a one in forty-five risk of the same fate. The majority of girls in the system have histories of abuse, an estimated 70 percent have been exposed to trauma, and as many as three-quarters have a diagnosed mental health disorder. Increasingly, girls from the child welfare and juvenile systems and girls who have run away are being pulled into sex trafficking. Join a vibrant discussion about what’s happening to girls at risk and what you can do to keep them out of the prison pipeline.
Tough Immigration Laws: Tough on Children
Carlos Amador, Project Coordinator, Dream Resource Center, UCLA Kent Wong, Director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA Sofia Campos, Graduate, UCLA
Tuesday, July 24 4:30 – 6:00
Alabama has passed the toughest immigration enforcement law in the country. Now children born in the U.S.A., American citizens, are living in fear. Some children are afraid to go to school. In Alabama, 85 percent of the children of undocumented immigrants live in ‘mixed status’ families, often meaning the children are citizens but one or more of the parents are not. The result is that thousands of Alabama parents and children now live in constant fear of separation. In the first six months of 2011, more than 46,000 mothers and fathers of U.S.-citizen children were deported. There are at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care whose parents have been either detained or deported. These deportations destroy families and endanger the children who are separated from their families. This session will focus attention on the devastating impact of harsh immigration laws and deportations on immigrant and citizen children and their families and what you can do to take action against fear, repression, and profiling and protect and care for all children.
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