Sesame Street Goes to Prison

By Zerline Hughes

“Who are the people in your neighborhood?” and “Lady Bug Picnic” are songs that I know from only one place: Sesame Street.  They are songs my children, 8 and 10, know as well – more than 30 years later.

To most of us 40-somethings and below, Sesame Street is synonymous with childhood memories, friendships, sweet dreams and excitement. The show and its creators have been great at delving into issues that help kids fit in, feel comfortable and understand differences like physical challenges, differences in family structure.

This week, Sesame Street unveils yet another project to help us understand life through our varied lenses: a 30-minute documentary on incarcerated parents highlighted on CBS’ “Sunday Morning.” Wow! Using puppets, youth, and personal stories, Sesame Workshop understood the lacking resources for children of incarcerated parents and developed a film to help children cope and families maintain a healthy environment.

“We were really struck by the lack of resources,” said Sesame Workshop spokesperson on the need to create  such a project. 

Mixing fiction with real life, the show will be distributed to therapists, schools, prisons and service providers. It will not air on the actual show.

New Heights for Voting Rights

By Victoria Ravenel

Last Friday was the end of my first week interning for the Justice Policy Institute, but I didn’t spend it at my computer.  I spent the day outside the office helping to manage a press conference hosted by the Virginia Alliance Against Mass Incarceration, which then led to a rally. 

The topic of concern: giving voting rights back to formerly incarcerated people.  That’s right: after doing time and serving their debt to society, some people in Virginia and three other states, including Kentucky, Iowa, and Florida, still do not automatically regain their voting rights or other civil rights, such as the right to hold public office, the right to purchase firearms, and the right to travel abroad.

An overwhelming 350,000 Virginians have had their voting rights taken away as a result of committing a violent or nonviolent offense. Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell took a step in the right direction last Wednesday by announcing a new policy allowing automatic rights restoration – but only to those who committed non-violent offenses As a result, there will still be thousands of Virginia residents who paid their dues, but still cannot automatically have voting rights simply because the offense committed was categorized as violent.  Instead, they must wait five years after their release to apply to have their civil rights restored.

Faith-based communities streamed into the Virginia State House Courtyard Bell Tower in central Richmond a week ago to support the cause and hear faith leaders Reverends Mark A. Croston Sr., Darrell Keith White, Edward Hailes Jr., and Emory Berry, Jr. speak on behalf of the disenfranchised. They spoke powerfully, praising the governor for his step in the right direction, but also urging him to go all the way by allowing all formerly incarcerated people to regain their voting rights instead of some. 

People in Prison: They’re Just Like Me

By Walter Fortson
Hannah Gu, a chemical engineering student at Princeton University, is looking forward to attending medical school in the fall of 2014.But she has another passion that isn’t typical of your average doctor-in-training: Lu is a volunteer tutor in New Jersey youth state prisons. Under the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program at Princeton, Lu and other students travel to prisons weekly to assist students in prison trying to earn a GED or college credits.  

“They’re kids who were just kids, forced into this lifestyle, but they’re really great people. They’re just like me!” said Lu, as she recounted her experience to Princeton alumni interested in supporting a national expansion of the Petey Greene program.

Lu is also one of five founding members of the student organization, SPEAR, which is an acronym for Students for Prison Education and Reform. Through SPEAR, Princeton students and alumni are looking for ways to start a Petey Greene chapter in as many colleges and universities as possible across the United States.  

Courage and a Plan

By Adwoa Masozi
This post was originally posted May 14, 2013 on Reclaiming Futures' blog.
 
Since 2003, Washington D.C. has seen a 43 percent decline in children placed in foster care. Though some progress has been made we are still seeing greater numbers of families struggling to access the resources they need to stay together when compared to the rest of the country. Our nation’s capital has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country with nearly 50 percent of youth in Ward 8 and 40 percent of youth in Ward 7 living below the federal poverty line. In 2011, Ward 8 had the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

These same wards are predominantly African-American and have the highest rates of children entering the child welfare system, of which 99 percent are youth of color (93 percent African-American and 6 percent Latino) according to research in Fostering Change, the latest report put out by the Justice Policy Institute. Fostering Change shows how family and neighborhood poverty are two of the strongest predictors of child maltreatment, and that the conditions poverty creates can ultimately lead to a child being removed from their home.
When considered in a broader socioeconomic context, poverty becomes more than the absence of income and or earning potential—that is, a lack of work opportunities, quality or not, to support oneself and her or his dependents. It is also dealing with the collateral effects of not being able to take care of basic needs such as buying food, medical care, school supplies and adequate clothing or paying for transportation, utilities and rent. These are just some of the conditions that can lead to children being maltreated. JPI’s report found that abused and neglected children are 59 percent more likely to be arrested, 28 percent more likely to be arrested as adults, and 30 percent more likely to commit a violent crime. In 2011, half of youth under the supervision of the District’s juvenile justice agency, Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Services (DYRS), were from Wards 7 and 8.

Disappointment Tsunami: Drug Czar, Kerlikowske Still Out of Touch

By Spike Bradford

Whenever the drug czar speaks or releases a statement or report, it is typically a hailstorm of disappointment for me. He and the administration he represents continue to be out of touch with the pulse of the nation when it comes to drug policy and are willing to adhere to harmful and unproductive policies. The latest National Drug Control Strategy, pitched as a change in tactics away from a punitive, criminal justice model and toward a public health model, is just another disappointment.

I recently saw Mr. Gil Kerlikowske speak at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., on a panel of experts.  Within minutes the disappointment tsunami began to wash over me. Here, I’d like to elaborate on two of the biggest disappointments I endured during that event.

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske courtesy Agence France-Presse

Disappointment #1: First, despite professing to shift away from a morality-driven punitive response to drug use and toward a system that addresses drug issues from a public health perspective, Kerlikowske’s vision of how that looks is just more of the same. An audience member asked how he plans to promote treatment when users still face criminal prosecution. Kerlikowske eagerly jumped into an explanation of so-called Good Samaritan laws that allow overdose victims to seek help without fear of prosecution. That’s great. However, it’s kind of a red herring, isn’t it? It only applies to situations of overdose, not drug users who recognize the need for help without overdosing. It also does nothing to encourage casual drug users to stop using beyond the age-old threat of prosecution.

Letter from Chemung County Jail

By Zerline Hughes

Criminal justice reform work is not usually synonymous with that of environmental reform but when I caught site of a piece today, I was taken aback.

Now, I'm not the most environmental person. I don't have three separate trash receptacles in my home but I teach my children to not toss trash out of the car window. We practice keeping our community clean and are often involved with community clean ups in our Washington, DC neighborhood where our neighbors are not so invested in such things. I don't do much more, though.

Image part of a children's climate change competition.
http://www.sdtb.de/Slideshow.1393.0.html

So, when Googling for "Earth Day" and "prison" issues, I happened upon this Ithaca Journal submission written by Ithaca-area activist and professor, Dr. Sandra Steingraber. She and 11 others, dubbed the Seneca Lake 12, were protesting fracking - drilling and injecting fluid into the ground to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside - at Inergy, natural gas storage facility. Because they were trespassing, Dr. Steingraber was one of the protesters arrested and sentenced to pay a fine or serve 15 days in jail in the Chemung County Jail in Elmira, NY. She opted for the latter.

Interrupting the Prison Pipeline through the D.C. Child Welfare System

By Katie Ishizuka

Last week, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) released the fourth and final brief in a series addressing ways in which youth outcomes in the District can be improved to decrease justice system involvement and increase public safety. The brief, entitled Fostering Change: How Investing in D.C.’s Child Welfare System Can Keep Kids Out of the Prison Pipeline, focuses on youth involved in the District’s child welfare system. 

District youth may become involved with the child welfare system for a number of reasons, with the top two being neglect and physical abuse. The third highest reason for youth entering foster care is now parental incarceration: a collateral consequence of D.C. possessing one of the highest incarceration rates in the country.

The majority of these youth are in poverty and residing in Wards (7 and 8) facing economic, social and political exclusion and disinvestment. Ninety-nine percent are African American or Latino. They are 30% more likely to commit violent crime, 59% more likely to be arrested as juveniles and 28% more likely to be arrested as adults if they have experienced maltreatment. One in six has an incarcerated parent and almost half will not graduate high school of those in foster care. Most have experienced multiple forms of trauma and for those currently or previously involved in the child welfare system, the leading cause of death is violent homicide by gunshot.

Put another way, this is an extremely vulnerable group of youth facing individual, family, neighborhood and systemic barriers. While the District’s public child welfare agency, Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), is tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of these youth, no single agency or system can do this alone. Improving youth outcomes is reliant upon the strengths and collaboration of all youth-serving systems, including the education, employment and mental health systems. Recommendations on how these systems can be supported can be found in JPI’s first three briefs: Mindful of the Consequences:How Improving the Mental Health of D.C. Youth Benefits the District; Workingfor a Better Future: How expanding employment opportunities for D.C’s youthcreates public safety benefits for all residents; and The Education of D.C.:How Washington D.C.’s investments in education can help increase public safety.

In addition, optimizing youth outcomes is reliant upon neighborhood and community investments in the areas of D.C. with the highest rates of poverty and unemployment, including Wards 5, 7 and 8. The Wards in which people have the ability to get work and provide for their families are the Wards with the lowest child welfare system involvement and lowest justice system involvement.

More information on solutions with the capacity to promote the short and long-term safety, well-being and permanency of the District’s vulnerable youth; save on foster care, criminal justice and human costs; enhance social justice and increase public safety can be found in Fostering Change. 

Katie Ishizuka is a JPI research intern and co-author of Fostering Change: How Investing in D.C.'s Child Welfare System Can Keep Kids Out of the Prison Pipeline.