Stay Out of the System

It is absolutely imperative that our youth stay out of involvement with the wrong side of the criminal justice system. Avoid probation, juvenile detention, and gang activity, among other negative activities that rob chances of long-term success. This is easy to say, not so easy to do, necessarily. Many kids are essentially born into gangs. The Bloods gang for instance, calls children born to their members, "blood drops." There is often a stated expectation that children born to gang members are part of it, from birth. Far too often, when a person becomes involved in the system, they never really seem to come out. When a minor becomes entangled in the juvenile court, and or, prison system, they essentially run the risk of graduating from the juvenile system, to the adult system, missing countless days of school along the way. The implications are staggering.

First off, involvement in the juvenile system, especially the juvenile penal system, means that kids are usually not present in the school they truly belong in, during their time in “juvie”. They are falling behind every day they are imprisoned, becoming less and less likely to ever become successful students in the classrooms they belong in. Many juvenile penal systems do have teachers available, but the nature of the job makes it highly unlikely that the quality of education will be as good as in the student’s home district.

Falling behind and never catching up is a recipe for losing hope and dropping out. Who wants to continue at a task that rarely, if ever, produces positive results? It is no secret that prison officials look at the failure rates of students, as young as lower elementary school, to project how much cell space will be needed in the future. It truly saddens me to think that somewhere, people are making plans to lock up a significant percentage of the kids running around on America’s playgrounds today. As the years go by and some students lose hope, and drop out, somewhere someone is taking note, and deciding how many extra cells will be required. Some states now budget more money to lock people up than to educate people. My state, Michigan, is one of them.

Fast forward a decade or two in the life of someone who has been negatively involved in the penal system, and now has one or more felonies. This is the case for too many of my friends and relatives. Their options for employment and upward mobility are severely constricted, compared to the group of people without felonies and criminal records. Even after they have paid their debt to society, they often cannot vote, are limited in the type of jobs they can have, and are at great risk for a return trip to jail. My heartfelt advice to those who have not yet been put into this unenviable position is simple; do whatever you can, to stay out of the system. You will lose a big part of your freedom, forever, if you do not.