Scribe/Convener: Steven Thomas
E110 19:00:00
Attendes: Steven Thomas, Derek Brown, Kim Mahon, Mary Beth Hill, Jamila Ali, Diana Woodall, Jane Clemens, Cedric Allen,Harvey Yoder,Guss Leinbach, Kevin Lanoue,Sue Praill, Martha Garibay de Metzler, Sharon Vigar, Diane Roll, Hevo Bvzw, Heather Da’mes.
- Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC)
1.When white and African-American youth are charged, African-American youth with no prior admissions are six times likely than white yuth to be detained in public facilities even though they were charged with the same offenses.
2.African-American youth are approx. 23% of the Virginia populatoin aged 0 to 17…but over 60%of residents are in juvenile correctional centers.
3.The lack of qualified legal representation for poor children, as identified by the American Bar Association.
- Cultural sensitivity training for system professionals and educaton of all community members as a continuing need.
- Alternatives for children who do not require it.
- The root causes and conditions throughout society that breed juvenile delinquency.
- The systemactic criminalization of underdevloped youth of color and the disproportionat targeting of this youth by law enforcement agencies.
- The prison industrial complex’s need to maintain the “cradle-to-prison pipeline”, as described by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Contact Steven Thomas
Children’s Defense Fund
Virginia Juvenile Justice Coalition
The W. Haywood Burns Institute
Indigent Defense Commission
The Dept. of Juvenile Justice
The Juvenile Justice Specialist of the VA Dept. of Criminal Justice Service
NAACP Virginia State Conference
Action:
1. State and local stop-and-arrest monitoring programs
2.Trial Monitoring
3. Ensuring successful felony re-enrty
4. Docket monitoring
5. Urge State legislators to ensure youth of color have access to effective counsel.
