The Sad Reality: Calls for Adolescent Imprisonment Overlook Fixing Families

TFD – Delve into the overlooked aspects of adolescent imprisonment and the urgent need for community intervention to support struggling families amidst rising youth crime rates.

Malcolm, a 17-year-old from Washington, DC, is escorted by guards into a circuit courtroom on a recent Tuesday morning where he will shortly receive his punishment for attempted robbery. As he walks to his seat, slumped and handcuffed in a jail jumpsuit, with an exhausted look on his face, he gives a subtle nod to five boys in the gallery – his friends who have come to witness his fate.

The adult chaperoning the teenagers, Jawanna Hardy, adds, “Let’s pray for Malcolm,” reaching for their hands. They bowed their heads. She prays to the Lord for a little punishment.

The fourteen-year-old boy standing next to her, whom we will refer to as “Sam” for privacy reasons, stares down through the prayer with his eyes wide open. He subtly expresses his unease and worry for his pal as the hearing gets underway.

Sam declares, “I don’t want to be here.” “This is not fictitious.”

Since another of their friends was shot and died last year, Marcelles Queen has been mentoring the kids, and one of his goals has been to help them understand the repercussions of violence. He urged them to show up for the hearing.

He continued, saying, “I want (them) to understand that the playing is over, that they’re trying to hold you accountable.” The teenagers expressed confusion over why their pals are facing adult charges and aren’t being let to return home.

Queen occasionally explains what’s going on in the court case while sitting behind the guys.

According to his mother and lawyer, Malcolm had previously entered a guilty plea to attempted robbery after being charged with trying to armed carjack a plainclothes police officer.

Since Malcolm was 16 when he committed the offense, his attorney requests that the case be transferred to juvenile court. Judge is conflicted about granting the motion because of the seriousness of the offense. Malcolm will be housed in a juvenile facility to complete his sentence. His mother tells CNN that she has no idea how long her son will be behind bars.

Malcolm’s buddies, who are between the ages of 13 and 16, congregate outside the courthouse following the hearing.

“A prison is not a game,” declares one of them. When it comes to things like that, you really do need to put on your big boy trousers.

An urgent call for youth crime

The nation’s capital has seen an increase in violent crime, up 39% from the previous year, and many children are being affected by this fear.

According to data, most people arrested in Washington, DC for offenses like carjacking and robbery are minors. The average age of individuals detained for carjackings, which almost doubled in 2023, was fifteen years old. According to police data, pistols are utilized in around half of carjackings.

Numerous people have criticized city officials for the concerning crime statistics and the decline in arrests and prosecutions. Some claim that after committing major felonies, many defendants—including minors—have just gotten a slap on the wrist.

To combat the situation, city officials have implemented some strict anti-crime measures in recent months.

Earlier this month, the DC city council adopted a comprehensive anti-crime package that included strict provisions like prolonging pretrial custody for minors accused of a variety of offenses.

Additionally, the plan would broaden the definition of carjacking, a problem that has gained significant attention in the wake of two victim deaths this year.

It comes after the district’s mayor declared a youth crime emergency the previous year. In the upcoming weeks, DC police plan to create a new multiagency real-time crime center.

However, CNN discovered that some youths in the country’s capital don’t appear to believe that they or their peers should be concerned about committing violent crimes like carjacking.

“They only believe they are merely picking up the car and driving it around,” expressed a 15-year-old (who we will refer to as “Eddie” for privacy reasons). They are blind to the harm they cause to other people. When you jack someone’s car, you might frighten others.

Eddie tells CNN that after a fight with his friend last year, he was shot in the leg. He doesn’t attend school, which is another major issue that DC children face.

Eddie is a teenager. Queen is attempting to stay out of trouble and off the streets. He claims that he gathers funds and resources from other members of the community to plan events and activities for the boys.

Queen told CNN, “I was a troubled youth; I’ve been shot before, and I’ve spent time in juvenile detention centers and federal correctional facilities.” “This is how this works; I want them to have a little notice beforehand. I’ll just stay away from this as it’s not a game.

According to Queen, the issues usually start long before children start stealing automobiles, and intervention needs to start early, when kids aren’t attending school or their families don’t have enough resources or support.

It’s unquestionably a crisis, he declared. “I’ve never witnessed 12-year-olds acting in such a manner.”

“Help is required,” he continued. “Prison is not.”

Getting involved early in Adolescent Imprisonment

The overburdened juvenile justice system, according to Curtis Brothers, a man who was formerly imprisoned but is now volunteering with the Alliance of Concerned Men to prevent violence in the streets of Southeast Washington, DC. He contends that many young people don’t think they will go to jail for even significant offenses and that punishments are too light.

He answered, “They think they’re not going.” “You practically had to catch a couple of murders just to do a couple of months because the juvenile system is overcrowded.”

Brothers is responsible for ensuring that kids have “safe passage” to and from class on the street outside a middle school in Washington, DC.

Regarding the middle schoolers, he stated, “This is the most vulnerable age.” “Once you’re over 13, you feel like you know everything and your mind is pretty much set up. Once they get to high school, it’s probably over.”

Interventions for violence are becoming more and more focused on younger kids. The organization aims to interrupt the pattern by teaching children as young as 5 years old conflict resolution skills, preparing them to become role models and community change agents by the time they are teenagers.

CNN spoke with two teenagers who work with ACM down the hall from the class; we’ll name them “Deon” and “Steve” to protect their identities. They talked about the reasons behind the crimes that adolescents are doing, commonly known as “crashing out.”

Steve, 17, and Deon, 16, were both formerly imprisoned for charges related to robbery and firearms. Steve has voluntarily continued the work he was required to do by the court, but he recently fulfilled his requirement to work with ACM and coach other children on conflict resolution.

Steve stated, “A lot of people crash out because they don’t have mentors, they don’t have the right guidance, and they don’t have anybody to talk to.”

“The pace of everything is increasing,” Deon continued. “They browse through their phone. They notice that you took part in the car theft. and that will have an impact on them. They say things like, “Leave me to do this; I’m hungry, I have no clothes, my brother is in jail, and my mother isn’t helping.”

They are one of the many who contend that DC cannot resolve this situation by simply making arrests and bringing charges. The district is nevertheless plagued by hypergentrification and glaring pockets of poverty, which are made worse for struggling families by the recent spike in prices. Additionally, social media has added a poisonous element to the lives of vulnerable children by creating pressure to keep up with classmates in many circumstances.

“It would never happen if they intervene way before the point of ‘crashing out,'” Queen added. “In every instance where a youngster is charged with a crime, you witness 100 days of absence from school and a lack of food in the home. Why does it take such a big event to realize that we are failing our children?

He stated, “And the saddest thing about it is, they’re willing to throw our kids away instead of fix our families,” in reference to calls for increased adolescent imprisonment.