Youth activists from Fearless Leading by the Youth (F.L.Y.) and their supporters held a rally and press conference this morning to demand that funds be re-directed from incarceration to restorative justice efforts and other positive youth interventions. The rally took place at the Cook County Offices downtown to coincide with the monthly board meeting. The rally marked the 6th year anniversary of FLY and the Audy Home Campaign.

Some of the youth dressed as prisoners to make the point that the $40 million spent by Cook County to jail youth at a cost of over $500 a day would be better & more effectively spent at the community level providing needed resources.

by Sarah Jane Rhee (7/31/13)

“Cook County Board members are failing our youth, incarcerating youth isn’t working, and it is wasting money,” said youth activist and former detainee of the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center Auntraney Carter. “We are outraged that that as our friends die the county’s only response is to increase spending on juvenile detention.” (Source)

by Sarah Jane Rhee (7/31/13)

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Chains Release Me
by Carolyn Smithers (1978)

Time passes by me
While lying within this cell.
They shackled my mind in bondage
Changes we go through in jail
I think about the future
My debates of the past
Tears filled with joy and laughter
My soul filled with
Unhappiness.

I meditate upon
My two daughters whom I left at home
The smiles that they carried
Tears that they shed
For they knew mommy was near to love
And understand
The way that they cuddled next to my side
Hanging tight to me like we can
Survive
They threw time before me
On that auction block
Took me from my babies
Without a second thought.

While locked within these bars
Of confusion and shame
Chains release me, or
I’ll never be the same
While walking here in darkness
With my emotions in the air
My soul is searching
My mind is in despair.
I’m pacing slow at the song of a lullaby
And my babies are riding gently on my
mind.
Chains release me

Carolyn Smithers is a 20 year old woman, who recently served time at Bedford Hills. She is the mother of two daughters placed in foster homes. The horrible medical conditions at Bedford aggravated her condition of epilepsy and her resistance to the authorities made her the target of several physical attacks by the guards. The combination of these two factors caused the prison to transfer her to Marcy State, an institution for the criminally insane in upstate New York.

There are a lot of things that I don’t know… For example, I don’t know anything about the human genome project. I don’t know how to mountain climb. I have no idea who the current President of Paraguay is.

I do know at least one thing for sure. I know that subjecting children who we cage to rape behind bars is unconscionable. If only one child is sexually victimized in our prisons, then that is too many. I also know that sexual violence is endemic to prison. This means that no level of “reform” will eradicate it. If we want to end the rape of incarcerated children, we must close youth jails and prisons. That’s it.

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee (7/30/13)

Today, I stood with dozens of my fellow Chicagoans to say that we adamantly oppose the judicial rape of our children. Furthermore, we insisted that youth jails & prisons be shut down.

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee (7/30/13)

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This post explains why we need to protest. Also, I spoke on Vocolo about these issues back in June.

by Bianca Diaz

From Chicago’s summers of gun violence to Trayvon Martin there has been a lot of talk about violence. This forum led by, organized by and for young people will be a space for us to engage in a larger discussion about structural violence. Closing 49 schools and locking up over 5000 young people of color in a year is violent. We want to think differently about violence and justice by collectively looking at the roots of the problems.

This is a space for YOUNG PEOPLE (high school and college age) to share, learn, and build. Please spread the word to interested youth and invite them to attend.

Thursday August 1
5 p.m.
Jane Addams Hull House Museum
800 S. Halsted St

Facebook event is here.

I’ve written a few times about the youth-led Audy Home Campaign on this blog. The Campaign is organizing a rally on July 31st.

Below is the annoucement:

Youth violence continues because of the lack of positive investments in our youth.

JOIN US TO RALLY TO STOP THE VIOLENCE &
DEMAND YOUTH INVESTMENT

Wed. July 31
10am at 118 N. Clark Street
Catch the Bus at 9:00am at 602 E 61st ST

The Detention Center Spends over $40M each year locking up youth, we are holding a rally to demand that money be reinvested in restorative justice programs in the neighborhoods where youth are getting locked up.

We need your voice! Join us!

This rally will take place on FLY and the Audy Home Campaign’s 6th Year Anniversary.

Some of the campaign’s past efforts are documented here and here.

[Please be advised that this is very traumatic information to read & must have been hell to experience.]

There is an inextricable connection between power, control, and privilege. It is often difficult for people to wrap their heads around these concepts individually, let alone to understand them as intersecting. After the George Zimmerman verdict, there’s been a lot of talk about the continuing salience of racism in American culture. It’s been shocking though how decontextualized from actual history some of the discussion has been. Racism is of course woven through all of our structures. It has always been so and continues today. Racism (like other forms of oppression) is held together through violence which helps to maintain unequal relationships.

It’s useful, I think, to focus on specific examples from history to make these ideas more concrete. I’m reading an absolutely harrowing book by Geo W. Carleton titled “The Suppressed Book About Slavery.” I came across a story that is seared in my mind. It illustrates that slaveowners didn’t respect the bonds of marriage between enslaved people. It shows how slave women were always at risk of sexual violence. One also gets an up-close account of the brutality of slavery which is often obscured in our sanitized re-tellings of history. Most importantly, the story underscores that American racism was a series of ACTIONS that sought to purposely subjugate & sublimate an entire class of people over hundreds of years. Many of these actions deliberately engendered black pain and suffering. Any discussions of the current role of race & racism in the country that don’t take these realities into account are not worth having.

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A lot is happening, all of the time, here in Chicago that involves young people organizing to save their own lives…

I’ve been reflecting on my own role in ethically supporting these efforts. I spent the day yesterday with over 100 (mostly) young people of color for a discussion about racism, their lived experiences, and Trayvon Martin.

photo by Bianca Diaz

The forum was not planned by young people. After the Trayvon Martin verdict, I wanted to offer a specific space where young people could gather and share their thoughts with one another. It is interesting to note that I had to turn several adults away from attending as “observers.” This is a strange pathology where grown people are unwilling to allow young people to have spaces of their own. The very idea of being an “observer” at a youth event brings to mind the concept of “native informants” used in ethnography. I bristle at this and I refused to allow adults who weren’t bringing groups of young people to attend the event. This was the right move.

I was reminded yesterday about the value of being in community with one another during trying times. The mood in the space felt almost celebratory even though the topics being discussed were harrowing and difficult. As I was packing up at the end of the event, a young woman approached me to say that she had “really enjoyed” herself. This matters because when discussions about important social issues can be had in edifying ways then they are more likely to feel relevant. The majority of the young people who attended the event are already affiliated with local organizations. Therefore I feel confident that the young people will be able to continue the conversations that were begun yesterday. It did feel as though some healing was occurring in the room just by virtue of being together.

In the same week that my comrades and I organized the Trayvon Martin youth forum, young people from the Chicago Student Union (formerly Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools) were organizing an action to protest the draconian Chicago Public School budget cuts that are coming on the heels of the closing of 49 schools.

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I’ve been listening to this non-stop since yesterday. The brilliant and committed Jasiri-X has written and produced an amazing song that addresses the Trayvon Martin case. Blessed to have been in community with Jasiri and I have found him as kind as he is talented. That’s saying a lot. Listen and share with others.