On April 2, a group of formerly incarcerated and justice system-impacted Texans will convene in Dallas. The event, “From Prison to Power: Finding Your Voice After Incarceration,” is organized by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity’s Statewide Leadership Council (SLC) and partners
The Harris County juvenile justice system disproportionately punishes a small group of Black and brown kids more harshly than others, according to a study from Rice University Texas Policy Lab. Of the 42,000 kids who came into contact with the Harris County juvenile justice system between 2010 and 2019, most had only one interaction, according to the study.
On January 29, a group of formerly incarcerated and justice system-impacted Texans will convene in Houston. The event, “From Prison to Power: Finding Your Voice After Incarceration,” is organized by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity’s Statewide Leadership Council (SLC) and partners.
For years, Demetrius Johnson, now 54, spent his days imagining what his life could have been if he had made different decisions at the age of 16. He describes it as if it actually happened to an alternate version of himself: A Demetrius Johnson who got a job at 18 and took care of his family. Who bought a two-bedroom house next door to his aunt, where he lived with his mother, his son and his son’s mother. Whose aunt helped turn the garage into an extra bedroom.
In the 1994 film, “The Shawshank Redemption,” actor Morgan Freeman portrays a prison inmate nicknamed “Red” who addresses a parole board after serving 40 years of a life sentence. He’s asked if he has been rehabilitated.
One night many years ago at 3:00 AM, I got a call from an 800 number, and something in me knew instantly that it was a loved one of mine calling from jail. I just knew it. It was one of my family members who was 17 at the time. I was in school and had just learned about some of the challenges that 17-year-olds experience in the criminal legal system in Texas.
Read the rest of this article from the National Juvenile Justice Network.
In a typical room where nonprofits do the work of grantmaking—deciding which programs and solutions to fund with their philanthropic dollars—the faces around that table likely don’t reflect the communities that will receive that charity.
In a time of prison overpopulation, why are we sending kids to jail? In the state of Texas, children as young as 10 years old are held criminally responsible for their actions. At age 10, most children are still in elementary school, spending their days on the playground and reading Dav Pilkey. So why do we think they’re so dangerous they should be locked up?
In the last photograph Maggie Luna has of all her children together, they are lined up alongside her by size, at a Houston area Chuck E. Cheese. Two daughters and a son, ages 4, 5 and 9. It’s 2015, and after two decades of struggling with addiction and related episodes of incarceration, a Texas judge has just terminated her parental rights.
