Jackson Free Press

It was just past 10 a.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day when a group of young people arrived at the state Capitol, crowding in front of the south steps. Gloved hands waving in the cold air, they lifted posters to the sky and chanted "J-U-S-T-I-C-E, for me I'm free, treat me like a human being."

Pulling in young people from across the state, the fourth annual youth rally for the Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse emphasized educational reform, particularly urging lawmakers to pass legislation requiring evidence-based Positive Behavioral Support Systems in Mississippi schools.

"In recent years there's been a lot of really good, quality research done that shows that positive behavioral interventions are very effective at creating good school climates," said Bear Atwood, director of the Mississippi Youth Justice Project. "The militaristic training academies are not a good way to do that."

Community organizations including the Mississippi ACLU, Citizens for Quality Education and the Mississippi Youth Justice Project came together to form the coalition at the end of 2002, around the time the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state citing sub-standard services at Columbia and Oakley Training Schools. Reforming or closing the training schools were high priorities at the rally, as well.

"Columbia needs to close, at least to delinquent girls," Atwood said. "The state may have other really great uses they can put that facility to, but Columbia is spending over $600 a day. They have 130 staff (members) and only 23 girls, and those girls are still getting sub-standard treatment."

In July 2007, a group of teenage girls from Columbia filed a lawsuit against the state citing a long list of offenses including sexual assault and shackling girls for weeks at a time. Atwood says that two more girls have come forward since the initial lawsuit. She believes Oakley is not beyond repair, but that it needs a change in leadership to move the school from where it is now to a place of rehabilitation.

"There really needs to be a profound transformation to make sure that juveniles (who) go there are really being rehabilitated, not just going to learn new skills for how to commit crimes," she said. "And it needs to be the last resort."

Jennifer Collins of the Mississippi Youth Justice Project presented a legislative agenda, which included not only reforming the training schools, but also enforcing youth confidentiality. State law allows the names of minors held at detention centers to be released to their schools. Collins said this practice, while meant to ease the child's transition back into school, violates the child's confidentiality. She also argued that too many young people are whisked through the juvenile system and into the adult courts.

"What we're asking legislators to do is to create a system where those children are taken care of initially in the youth court system," Collins said.

Holding the rally on the observance day of King's birthday has been a tradition that allows youths to travel to the capitol because they are not in school, but it also honors his dream, translated for today's society.

Ellen Reddy, a coalition facilitator, said that the larger issue today's dream addresses is the "incarceration of our children."

"The dream is still alive," Reddy said. "It's not a dream deferred. Juvenile justice, the incarceration of our children, has become the civil rights of the 21st century, as far as I'm concerned."

The rally closed with a unity circle of Mississippi senators, representatives, children, parents, advocates—people from all walks of life—singing "We Shall Overcome." I was inadvertently "finagled" into the circle, and found myself in awe, sandwiched between the powerful voice of musician Maurice Turner and the spirited voice of an 11-year-old student from Walton Elementary School in Jackson.

Eleven-year old D.J. Ray has been involved with the coalition since its formation in 2002, meeting civil rights workers and attending juvenile justice meetings. He hopes to see even more young people alongside him at the rally next year.

"Next year, when we march down that road, I hope (to see) all of this filled up," Ray said, gesturing with outstretched arms toward the area in front of the capitol. "With Martin Luther King, you see how he had thousands of kids when he marched to Washington, D.C. … If we get that, I believe we can make it."

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ID

68250

Comment

“Columbia needs to close, at least to delinquent girls,” Atwood said. “The state may have other really great uses they can put that facility to, but Columbia is spending over $600 a day. They have 130 staff (members) and only 23 girls, and those girls are still getting sub-standard treatment.” Wow, 130 staff members and 23 girls? That's almost a ratio of 6 to 1, and they can't do any better than that?

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-01-28T14:26:09-06:00