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Symposium addresses kids, jail
Marion County groups want alternatives to incarceration for troubled youths
by Kim L. Hooper
kim.hooper@indystar.com
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051113/NEWS01/511130448
Marion County's juvenile justice system is overburdened
with children who shouldn't be there, a group campaigning
for change said at a symposium focused on the issue.
Too many troubled youths, they say, are referred to juvenile
court for delinquent behavior, found guilty, then sentenced
to the Indiana Department of Correction, when what they
need is a different type of intervention. Many kids in the
system have emotional, mental and educational needs
that aren't addressed when they are incarcerated.
"We're very worried about kids being in school. . . . Then
we take them out of school to lock them up in a detention
center for 28 days. We're sending a conflicting message,"
said Daniel Schroeder, of the Marion County Public Defender
Agency, Juvenile Division.
The daylong symposium at Shortridge Middle School, 3401 N. Meridian St., drew
families, elected officials, educators, caseworkers, counselors and child welfare
advocates. Through eight workshops, about 200 participants explored ways to keep more
youths out of juvenile detention and state incarceration and how to better protect
abused and neglected children.
They heard a personal and at times emotional story from Maushae Byles, 23, a starting
guard for the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis basketball team, who
said being placed in foster care rather than being incarcerated helped right his
troubled life when he was a teen in Racine, Wis.
The symposium was organized by the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council
and the Marion County Superior Court's Juvenile Justice Progress Committee. Those
groups want to emulate a detention reform program under way in Chicago, Portland,
Ore., and Sacramento, Calif., with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Statistics show youths who are incarcerated are more likely to re-offend.
"Many kids in the juvenile court system can be rehabilitated and helped," said
Superior Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt. "We just haven't done a very good job of
helping them."
Call Star reporter Kim L. Hooper at (317) 444-6494
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and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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