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The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.

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<strong>The</strong> Transformative <strong>Justice</strong> Project<br />

Eradicat<strong>in</strong>g Juvenile Del<strong>in</strong>quency Requires a Multi-Discipl<strong>in</strong>ary Approach<br />

<strong>The</strong> Juvenile <strong>Justice</strong> system is <strong>in</strong>credibly<br />

overloaded, and Solutions-Based programs are<br />

woefully underfunded. Our precious children,<br />

therefore, particularly young people <strong>of</strong> color, <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

get the “swift” version <strong>of</strong> justice whenever they<br />

come <strong>in</strong>to contact with the law.<br />

Decisions to build prison facilities are <strong>of</strong>ten based<br />

on elementary school test results, and our country<br />

<strong>in</strong>carcerates more <strong>of</strong> its young than any other<br />

nation on earth. So we at <strong>The</strong> Foundation labor to<br />

pull our young people out <strong>of</strong> the “school to prison”<br />

pipel<strong>in</strong>e, and we then coord<strong>in</strong>ate the efforts <strong>of</strong> the<br />

legal, psychological, governmental and<br />

educational pr<strong>of</strong>essionals needed to br<strong>in</strong>g an end<br />

to del<strong>in</strong>quency.<br />

We also educate families, police, local bus<strong>in</strong>esses,<br />

elected <strong>of</strong>ficials, clergy, schools and other<br />

stakeholders about transform<strong>in</strong>g whole communities, and we labor to change their<br />

th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g about the causes <strong>of</strong> del<strong>in</strong>quency with the goal <strong>of</strong> help<strong>in</strong>g them embrace the<br />

idea <strong>of</strong> restoration for the young people <strong>in</strong> our care who demonstrate repentance for<br />

their mistakes.<br />

<strong>The</strong> way we accomplish all this is a follows:<br />

1. We vigorously advocate for charges reductions, wherever possible, <strong>in</strong> the<br />

adjudicatory (court) process, with the ultimate goal <strong>of</strong> expungement or pardon, <strong>in</strong><br />

order to maximize the chances for our clients to graduate high school and<br />

progress <strong>in</strong>to college, military service or the workforce without the stigma <strong>of</strong> a<br />

crim<strong>in</strong>al record;<br />

2. We then endeavor to enroll each young person <strong>in</strong>to an Evidence-Based, Data-<br />

Driven Transformative <strong>Justice</strong> program designed to facilitate their rehabilitation<br />

and subsequent re<strong>in</strong>tegration back <strong>in</strong>to the community;<br />

3. While those projects are operat<strong>in</strong>g, we conduct a wide variety <strong>of</strong> ComeUnity-<br />

ReEng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g sem<strong>in</strong>ars and workshops on topics rang<strong>in</strong>g from Juvenile <strong>Justice</strong><br />

to Parental Rights, to Domestic issues to Police friendly contacts, to Mental<br />

Health <strong>in</strong>tervention, to CBO and FBO accountability and compliance;<br />

Page 9 <strong>of</strong> 262

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