{"id":160927,"date":"2023-03-21T15:40:44","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T22:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=160927"},"modified":"2023-03-21T15:43:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T22:43:22","slug":"unlocking-knowledge-of-those-impacted-by-juvenile-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=160927","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking Knowledge of Those Impacted by Juvenile Justice System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlocking Knowledge of Those Impacted by Juvenile Justice\u00a0System<\/h1>\n

\u201cThe real crime lies in how society views us.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

This indictment by a young individual cited in a report by the Shelby County Youth\u00a0Council in Memphis stings because it is true.<\/h3>\n

Activists of all ages in Shelby County have no illusions about dislodging deep systemic racism but they\u00a0demonstrate increasing impatience about how minors are treated in the largest county in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Salina Shamsuddin with the Youth Justice Action Council did not mince words with me when talking\u00a0about how grownups need to behave.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt’s oppressive to call us children and kids because it has a negative connotation that is
\nnot empowering to us so we\u2019d like to be referred to as youth … Catching them [adults] and
\nstanding up for ourselves is one of the biggest things that works and people really
\nunderstand they cannot treat us like this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Youth Justice Action Council<\/a> (YJAC) centers its work on those directly impacted by the juvenile\u00a0justice system in Memphis and developed 10 legal demands in its “Break the Chains” written petiti<\/a>on and rap<\/a> version . YJAC used these specific demands in its campaign to defeat the District Attorney and\u00a0Juvenile Court Judge who tried many Black and Brown youth as adults.<\/p>\n

Following this victory, the Youth Justice Action Council hosted a forum for the newly elected Judge, DA\u00a0and County government officials. In small groups, two YJAC members shared their firsthand stories\u00a0about the juvenile justice system and one of the other Council members facilitated. Adults were toldnot to interrupt or interrogate. Another one of the facilitators, Milana Kumar emphasized<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c. . . the need to center on the experiences of systems impacted youth as opposed to just
\nrecommendations. It\u2019s harder to invalidate when they [DA and others] are faced with the\u00a0trauma they have caused and cannot distance themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One Youth Justice Action Council representative serves on the five-member Shelby Countywide
\nJuvenile Justice Consortium, all appointed by the Mayor. This is not a token position. In fact, this repand the YJAC have credibility and clout plus strong rapport with the adult members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think we\u2019ve ever made a decision that has not had a youth voice\u2026They are our\u00a0checks and balances. We are really led by them.\u201d
\n– Rebecca Davis, Chair, Countywide Juvenile Justice Consortium<\/p>\n

The Youth Justice Action Council (YJAC) is a youth-led organization that advocates for juvenile
\nsystem reform. It is sponsored by Stand for Children Tennessee, which advocates for improving
\npublic education and for racial justice.The 100-year-old organization in Memphis, appropriately called\u00a0Bridges USA that recently prioritized youth-adult equity and racial justice, provides the crucial structural support for this intergenerational symbiosis.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of disbelief that systemic change can actually happen. Even with the horrific murder by\u00a0police of Tyre Nichols, the recent election fuels the determination of Salina, Milana and justice-impacted advocates to erase the superpredator view that sociologist Mike Males debunks in The\u00a0Terrifying Plunge of Youth Crime .<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlocking Knowledge of Those Impacted by Juvenile Justice\u00a0System \u201cThe real crime lies in how society views us.\u201d\u00a0 This indictment by a young individual cited in a report by the Shelby County Youth\u00a0Council in Memphis stings because it is true. Activists of all ages in Shelby County have no illusions about dislodging deep systemic racism but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160931,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160927\/revisions\/160931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}