Oregon Teen Wins Poetry Award For Jailed Youth

Back in March, we published a blog post about Words Unlocked, a new poetry contest for students incarcerated in juvenile detention. Today we're happy to congratulate Oregon teenager, Brianna Nicole Ireland, for winning the contest with her poem, "Hell's Angel." Listen to Oregon Public Broadcasting's coverage below, along with a reading by Brianna. 

David Backes writes the Friday news roundup for Reclaiming Futures and contributes articles about juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment to ReclaimingFutures.org. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Santa Clara University. David works as an account executive for Prichard Communications.