incarcerated youth

The Fair Futures coaching program for foster youth is expanding to serve young people involved in New York City’s  justice system. 

This poem was one of two 2nd place winners in the 2019 Words Unlocked poetry contest hosted by the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings.    I’m locked up, choked, covered, and tied by iron and steel chains, Chains that cannot be fought by strength but by brains, These chains have bound around my body, mind and soul, Two-to-three years of my growing adolescence have they stole, Too many times have I had these metal snakes biting into my skin, Sharp teeth digging at my wrists and ankles digging deeper within.

A motion at today’s Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting calls on county agencies and other stakeholders to develop a strategy to end the incarceration of pregnant youth. In 2017, 1,039 girls were booked into L.A.