New Jersey Communities That Care

Author : Andrea McChristian
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (137 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Beyond the Hashtag written by Andrea McChristian and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "New Jersey has the highest Black to white youth incarceration disparity rate in the country, with a Black youth 21 times more likely to be locked up than a white youth. In response to the advocacy of the 150 Years is Enough campaign, which aims to close New Jersey’s youth prisons and reinvest funds into community-based programs, New Jersey has announced the forthcoming closure of two of its youth prisons – Jamesburg and Hayes. Yet, its remaining youth prison, the Juvenile Medium Security Facility (JMSF), has been left out of the closure conversation. JMSF, the state’s most secure youth prison for boys, is also a harmful penal institution: it is remote, far away from young people’s families, nonrehabilitative, replete with racial disparities, financially wasteful and mostly empty. What is more, many of the young people incarcerated in JMSF have mental health needs, disabilities and have been involved with the child welfare system; these youth are in need of comprehensive treatment and services, not incarceration in a failed youth prison. While we can recognize that some young people incarcerated in JMSF may need to be in an out-of-home placement because they cannot be safely rehabilitated in the community, this placement should not be in JMSF. By contrast, community-based placements and services have been shown to effectively support and rehabilitate young people – even those who have committed serious harms. This report makes the case that New Jersey must close all of its youth prisons – including JMSF – and, in place of incarceration, develop a well-resourced community-based system of care that provides intensive treatment and services for young people. • First, it describes how JMSF is an outdated representation of a punitive youth justice model. • Second, it outlines the myriad reasons why New Jersey must close JMSF. • Last, the report concludes by offering three policy proposals that will chart the way forward for how New Jersey can build a youth community-based continuum of care, close its three youth prisons (including JMSF), maintain public safety and keep communities and families together and whole. To ensure that Black lives really matter in New Jersey, the state must take the following steps to radically transform its broken youth justice system: 1. New Jersey should create a youth community-based continuum of care and close its three youth prisons. 2. New Jersey should create a $100 million lockbox fund to finance the youth community-based continuum of care. 3. New Jersey should pass the New Jersey Youth Justice Transformation Act"--