Monday 5/19: Locked Up & Locked Out March & Action

Project NIA // project-nia.org // @projectnia

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Monday, May 19th
5pm, 2221 S. Lawndale
Locked Up & Locked Out: Action & March Against Incarcerating Youth

Event Invitation: www.smore.com/ftma3-locked-up-locked-out


KICKING OFF THE NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST INCARCERATING YOUTH WITH A MARCH!

Over 30 local organizations are coming together on Monday May 19th at 5 p.m. at Paderewski Elementary School (2221 S. Lawndale) to call for investments in our youth rather than criminalization.

In FY 2013, 1,835 were admitted to Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (youth prisons) and their average stay in prison was 9 months. In 2012, Illinois taxpayers paid an average of $86,861 per year for each youth incarcerated in state prison (Illinois Department of Human Services, 2012). As of 3/31/14, there were 1,416 youth on parole.

In 2013, 4,267 youth were admitted to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). Over 85% of these young people were black. Taxpayers paid an astounding $219,000 per year for each youth confined to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (Civic Federation, 2013). These numbers do not include associated costs, such as government funds used to pay police, investigators, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, court personnel, and others for the arrest, investigation, and adjudication of youth’s criminal cases.

In solidarity with the 2014 National Week of Action Against Incarcerating Youth, individuals and organizations across Chicago are joining to share poetry, hear speeches from young people, participate in a symbolic collective action using locks, and then march to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC).

Marching from a closed school to the youth detention facility symbolizes our commitment to advocate for better use of public funds; namely more funding for schools and extracurricular activities, jobs and vocational skills development, behavioral and mental health services, community-based alternatives to incarceration, and other restorative justice measures.

The local March and Action are convened by Project NIA (www.project-nia.org), a local grassroots organization committed to eradicating youth incarceration.  A list of all organizational co-sponsors can be found here: https://www.smore.com/ftma3-locked-up-locked-out

For more info about juvenile justice in IL, read these new reports:

http://chiyouthjustice.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/new-data-snapshot-juvenile-justice-in-illinois

http://chiyouthjustice.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/updated-a-conscious-chicagoans-guide-to-youth-detention-and-incarceration

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Co-Sponsors:

Black and Pink - Chicago
Black Youth Project 100 (Chicago Chapter)
Broken Bonds Network
Canaan Community Church
Circles and Ciphers
Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce
Chicago Freedom School
Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS)
Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women
Conscious Souls in Action at Rudy Lozano Leadership Academy
Free Spirit Media
Gender JUST
Health and Medicine Policy Research Group
HumanThread Center/Gallery for Peace, Arts & Education
Illinois Accountability Initiative
Illinois Campaign to End the New Jim Crow
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health
Illinois Safe Schools Alliance
The Immigrant Youth Justice League
International Socialist Organization
Kuumba Lynx
Lawndale Christian Legal Center
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO)
A Long Walk Home
Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration
Occupy Rogers Park
Organized Communities Against Deportations
Overpass Light Brigade Chicago
People Organizing Peace Systems (P.O.P.S) Movement Chicago
Project NIA
Radical Public Health
Revolutionary Poets Brigade
Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (Francis W. Parker School Chapter)
Sustainable Schools Action Team (Alliance for Climate Education)
Union Solidarity Committee of United Auto Workers Local 551