Editor's Note: This post was originally published in 2010, but we thought you might find it useful.
We know that teens in the juvenile justice system generally have better outcomes when they're connected with their families while they're detained or incarcerated. During the holidays, their feelings of isolation and despair are magnified (and their family members often feel the same way).
It can make all the difference to have someone remember them during the holidays, and it can be a great opportunity to partner with community organizations.
Don't know what to do? Then check out this excellent Holiday Toolkit from the Campaign for Youth Justice. (Be patient - I find the PDF can take a while to load.) It can help you plan:
- a party or special event at the detention facility (or wherever the youth are locked up);
- a holiday gift-giving event;
- a walk-through of the facility by legislators or local policy makers; or
- a holiday-card campaign.
It's even got sample language for cards, invitations, and a media advisory. Try it -- and let us know how it goes!
Isolated from their families, the holidays can be a particularly difficult time for the tens of thousands of children behind bars. But the holidays also offer us a unique opportunity to reach out and make meaningful connections with justice-involved youth.
Looking for ways to connect? Our friends at the Campaign for Youth Justice have a Holiday Event Toolkit that includes ideas for holiday projects, letters and events for incarcerated youth.
Check it out and let us know if you have any ideas to add!
Youth behind bars often find the holidays to be an especially lonely time, as they are away from friends and family members. A non-profit in Washington, DC is collecting books to give to incarcerated teens in adult prisons.
Free Minds Book Club uses creative writing and books to help teens in the juvenile justice system turn their lives around.
Check out this clip on the book drive and one teen's success with the program:
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in 2010, but we thought you might find it useful.
We know that teens in the juvenile justice system generally have better outcomes when they're connected with their families while they're detained or incarcerated. During the holidays, their feelings of isolation and despair are magnified (and their family members often feel the same way).
It can make all the difference to have someone remember them during the holidays, and it can be a great opportunity to partner with community organizations.
Don't know what to do? Then check out this excellent Holiday Toolkit from the Campaign for Youth Justice. (Be patient - I find the PDF can take a while to load.) It can help you plan:
- a party or special event at the detention facility (or wherever the youth are locked up);
- a holiday gift-giving event;
- a walk-through of the facility by legislators or local policy makers; or
- a holiday-card campaign.
It's even got sample language for cards, invitations, and a media advisory. Try it -- and let us know how it goes!
I know a woman in Tennessee whose son was just sent to a youth detention center. He has had some problems with petty crime and drugs, and was sent to a treatment program for kids awhile back. He did not adapt very well to the program, and now he has been sent to this YDC for an indefinite period. He is 17 and the state can hold him until he is 21 if authorities decide he is not ready to be released.
She is trying to figure out how she can go see him for Thanksgiving. He is housed several hours away, and she doesn’t have a reliable vehicle to get her there. She is hoping the boy’s father, who lives in another town, will be willing to take her. Maybe he will.
This is her Thanksgiving.
There is something about the holiday season that makes these situations especially poignant for me. When I was on the inside, holidays weren’t so bad. Often the prisoners would come together and make meals, and guys would normally be a little nicer. We were all missing our families, and somehow that drew us together a little more than during the rest of the year. Somehow we were able to humanize one another a little more.
It’s only been since my release in December of 2009 that I have seen the other side of this story. For the families on the outside it is not a better time of year. When they gather around the table to eat a big meal and celebrate life there is a conspicuous absence. There is a gaping hole where their loved one should be.
