I taught in a juvenile detention center for 5 years. Things like this happen to black children way more common than most people understand or realize. This is a thread of the some of the things I have seen in my years at the detention center. https://twitter.com/ClaudiaStellar/status/1283039443402752004

A 15 year old who qualified for a diversion program for breaking and entering (no property stolen) was sentenced to 1 year at the maximum security juvenile facility because he cursed at the cop when he was arrested so he was deemed a menace.

A 15 year old with the mental capacity of a 2nd grader was held in the facility for arson for 6 months because no facility for developmentally delayed kids would accept a student accused of arson. Student was subsequently sent to a facility several states away from his family.

Multiple young ladies as young as 14 convicted of crimes because they wouldn't take plea bargains or testify against abusive boyfriends. The vast majority of these young ladies were victims of sexual abuse.

Multiple students for whom the state couldn't find placement in the foster care system were locked in the detention facility. At some points, those kids made up a quarter of our population. A simple curfew violation could put these kids with us for months.

A student was sent to our facility because he started a food fight in another detention facility. The rational for sending him away from the predominately white facility close to his family was he too dangerous and needed to go somewhere they could handle him.

A student whose probation was violated for disorderly conduct by a cop who knew he was on probation. He cursed the cop because the cop stopped him and searched him while repeatedly stepping on his feet and new shoes. Sentenced to 60 days for probation violation

A 16 year old who was sentenced for violating drug court probation because he was self medicating with marijuana after watching his friend get killed in an accident. He was called an addict, a menace, and threat to society by his judge.

Multiple students who were released from state custody being blocked from re entering their comprehensive school because the school did not want "criminals" in their school. Students probation was then violated for truancy and sent back to detention

This is not a judgment of the great dedicated people working in the DJJ system to help students overcome societal ills. However the discretion of judges & the system itself needs a dramatic overhaul to help our youth. When society fails kids end in this system that devours them