We are hoping you will join FFLIC for our 20th Anniversary Mock Jazz Funeral memorializing the lost dreams of our children. This year we are adding a Trunk or Treat to be held on Saturday, October 30, at 12 noon in Monroe, LA. We will be convening near the LSU Medical Center on Jackson around 11:30 AM and from there we will caravan (by car or walking) to Swanson-Monroe Youth Facility for a press conference and goodie bag giveaway. This October event is part of Youth Justice Awareness month #YJAM.

This family friendly event is based in Monroe to fight the rebuild of the youth prison and to raise community awareness to the disparate and inhumane treatment of youth of color. It’s especially important to take action now that Governor Edwards recently spoke about the need for the new youth prison, after being silent on the many atrocities our youth have faced during a pandemic and hurricane.

We will also be sharing a community invitation to a listening session in Monroe in the upcoming weeks to discuss community concerns, alternatives to punitive systems, how to better invest prison construction dollars in the local community, and how communities can take action to build holistic networks of support for youth and ensure every young person has the opportunity to live a full and productive life.

Here’s how you can join or support the event:

• Join Us! It’s a rare opportunity to dress up and join the Mock Jazz Funeral! It will be both a fun and fierce event to stand up for youth justice! Register here. 
• Share about the event! Use the graphics available here and share our social media toolkit!
• Tweet one of these sample messages:
  • The abuse and violence in our youth justice system are scary and @LouisianaGov and our policymakers need to stop the rebuild of Swanson Monroe! #NoMoreTricks #LetKidsBeKids #YJAM
  • Our incarcerated youth are living in frightful conditions. @LouisianaGov, we must close youth prisons and invest in communities. Stop the Swanson rebuild. #LetKidsBeKids #YJAM
  • I stand with @FFLICLA in telling @LouisianaGov that our youth incarceration system is a horror. We must stop the rebuild of Swanson Monroe and invest in opportunities for our youth. #LetKidsBeKids #YJAM
  • The hopes and dreams of children are dying and we are calling upon @LouisianaGov to invest in opportunities for youth. 73% of Louisianans favor rehabilitation instead of punishment. #NoMorePrisons #YJAM

In response to Governor John Bel Edwards’ interview with KNOE on the Swanson Center for Youth earlier this week, Gina Womack, the Executive Director of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), issued the following statement:

“Our elected Governor, John Bel Edwards, should be ashamed of his assertion that a punitive, violent and inherently traumatic prison like Swanson is a safe place for young people.

Swanson and other youth prisons like it have been havens for physical, mental and sexual abuse against children. It's been repeatedly proven that the state is unfit to provide the safety for the youth in their custody. 

Additionally, Governor Edwards’ blatant criminalization and adultification of system-impacted youth, who are disportionately Black, is demonstrative of the state and the country’s cruel history of enslavement, oppression and control of Black lives and labor.

Young people of all backgrounds engage in risky behavior at the same rates, yet Black youth are six times more likely than white youth to be incarcerated in Louisiana. This is unacceptable and unjustifiable. 

True public safety and justice does not require the incarceration and separation of Louisiana’s most vulnerable youth from their families. Studies have specifically shown that community based programs for young people are more effective for improved public safety. Lacking adequate preventive services at the front end of the system, children only end up accessing diversion programs and mental health support during incarceration at the deep end of the system. This backwards approach negates everything we know about adolescent brain development and youth best practices. 

We must change our punitive approach and invest in young people and their communities in order to properly address the root causes of crime- poverty and lack of opportunities and supportive systems. A new facility won’t prevent additional violence and harm from occurring- the new youth prison in Acadiana has already experienced several incidents since its opening. Instead, by centering the communities who are directly impacted by the youth prison system, we will be able to give kids the freedom and chance to grow from their mistakes instead of being defined by them. 

The Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission (JJRAIC) has begun meeting to finally implement reforms that were promised to youth and families over 18 years ago. These reforms could have prevented today’s youth from ever becoming involved in the criminal-legal system in the first place. The Governor must acknowledge the history of Louisiana’s broken promise to youth and also understand that Louisianans are ready for these critical changes- 73% of Louisianans, across political parties, favor community-based programs over youth incarceration.

Governor Edwards, we are calling on you to immediately halt construction on Swanson-Monroe and shut this nightmarish prison down. We are calling you and other child serving decision makers-- such as those who serve at your behest on the Children's Cabinet Advisory Board and local Children Youth and Planning Boards-- to join us at the JJRAIC meeting this Tuesday the 19th, and listen to the concerns of the Commission. We seek to invest in Louisiana’s youngest generation and to commit to implementing long-overdue community-based solutions, instead of perpetuating a legacy of systemic racism and mass incarceration.”

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On Tuesday, October 5th, FFLIC, along with a parent of a teen held in custody, and the Loyola Law Clinic filed suit against the City of New Orleans for illegal evacuation of youth to an adult prison. Since then, new parents have joined the suit and the first hearing has been scheduled for this Monday, October 18th at 10:00 a.m.! FFLIC will keep you updated on those court proceedings.

The youth detainees, most of whom are in pre-trial phases of proceedings, reported horrendous conditions at the adult prison, including nearly inedible food, excessive heat, lack of access to basic hygiene, long periods of isolation, and visual contact with adult prisoners. The lawsuit asks that the court recognize that the city’s evacuation policy and partnership agreement with the Department of Public Safety & Correction was illegal. The suit also seeks to stop the city from implementing the current policy ever again and an order directing the city to develop a new policy that is in accordance with the state constitution and Children’s Code.

At a press conference in front of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, FFLIC's Co-Founder and Executive Director, Gina Womack said, "Today we are saying that children can no longer wait. Improved plans must be put into place immediately to ensure our children are evacuated to appropriate facilities and never step foot into another adult prison again.”

Hector Linares, the Loyola Law Clinic professor who filed the suit along with student practitioners, said, “There is a reason the law requires youth to be held in licensed facilities and forbids them from being placed in adult jails or in DPSC custody. It’s because it is not safe, physically or emotionally, for youth to be held in adult prisons. In the end, it was illegal for these children to be taken to an adult prison like Hunt regardless of what the conditions there were.”

Watch video coverage of the press conference here and continue to share the following article with the hashtag #YJAM: https://lailluminator.com/briefs/activist-group-sues-new-orleans-over-evacuation-of-detention-center-teens-to-adult-prison/

As part of the #YJAM and National Week of Action Against School Pushout, FFLIC is calling for Louisiana residents to attend the next JJRAIC meeting. Join us tomorrow, October 19th, at 1:00 PM CST via livestream. More details and the link to join are available here.

To transform our youth justice system, we must continue to advocate for the closure of youth prisons and stop the building of new ones, and the Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission (JJRAIC) is key to change.

Nearly 20 years ago, families and loved ones of incarcerated children united to achieve the unthinkable-- close the country’s worst youth prison, Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth. This collective action ultimately led to the founding of FFLIC and the passage of Act 1225 of 2003 that created the JJRAIC to address the root causes of incarceration and called for comprehensive youth justice reforms. But then for years, the JJRAIC abandoned the work and left children and families to deal with a broken and abusive system.(Learn more about the JJRAIC here.) Now, with FFLIC as Vice Chair, the JJRAIC has reconvened and is once again moving the state forward on this important work. But we continue to be frustrated and angry about the lack of accountability of our state's policymakers and leaders. At the JJRAIC meetings, we must continue to ask important questions and create systems of accountability and oversight to protect our children!

TAKE ACTION!!!!

1) We are asking you to share the social media messages and graphics on the day of the JJRAIC Meeting from our social media toolkit.

2) If you can attend the meeting, we are asking you to share the sample chatbox messages and change your profile and/or background picture (instructions and link to graphics can be found in our social media toolkit).

#YJAM is still going strong! Every year, youth justice advocates around the country come together in October to bring awareness to the negative impacts of youth incarceration, with activities and actions that build upon and strengthen efforts to end youth incarceration. Details are below on events you can attend and actions you can take to support our efforts to end youth incarceration. 

THIS WEEK'S WORKSHOP:

TODAY, Monday, Oct. 18th from 2-3:30 PM CT 

Care Not Cages: Invest in Families and Community

Join us in discussion about how states have begun building better futures for youth by closing youth prisons, ending contracts with dangerous for-profit residential treatment centers, and committing to reductions in congregate care.  Our vision of youth justice is within reach!

Register here. 

The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), a national coalition of over 100 organizations, will host events, teach-ins, rallies, protests and workshops all across the country. Find out more about the campaign and national events here.

Additionally, FFLIC will be participating in a national DSC week of action event, "Talking Sankofa"-- introducing 'Willfull Defiance: Lifting Up Lessons of the Past and Discussing the Challenges of Today'-- an interactive book talk with author Mark Warren. Willful Defiance tells the story of how Black and brown parents and students organized to dismantle the school–to–prison pipeline in their local schools and built a movement that spread across the country. Visit tinyurl.com/talkingsankofa, or click the image below to register for this event which will take place on Saturday, October 23rd, 1:00 - 2:00 PM CT! 

This year's week of action began on Saturday, October 16th and is running through October 24th, DSC’s 12th National Week of Action Against School Pushout will bring students, parents, education advocates, lawyers and many others committed to social and educational justice together to amplify the nationwide call for schools to move away from punitive, cold, criminalizing policies and towards emotionally-safe, restorative and culturally responsive school communities.

Share any of the social media graphics available here.

Please update our USPS mailing address to:

P.O. Box 56877

New Orleans, LA 70156

For FedEx, DHS, UPS, DHL, packages, please send to:

701 Loyola Avenue, Unit 56877

New Orleans, LA 70156

While most media coverage has abated, Louisianans are still suffering with major damage to their homes, property loss, unemployment, and continued displacement. View a list here of emergency assistance and mutual aid organizations working in New Orleans and the surrounding areas post Hurricane Ida. If you are a parent in need of help due to Hurricane Ida or a parent with a child involved in the system who needs help due to Ida please contact FFLIC for support at gbwomack@fflic.org or call us at (504) 708-8376. 

We continue to be disappointed and frustrated by the newest actions of New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams to repeatedly go back on his campaign promise by trying youth as adults. We stand by our previous statement that this "Jason Williams is just an example of everything wrong with a system that continues to target the most vulnerable populations in our community: Black and brown youth."

We continue to be concerned about youth who are escaping from local and state facilities, including the five youth who recently escaped from the East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center. We are relieved that four of the youth who escaped have returned safely and wish for the safe return of the fifth. However, the fact that these youth feel the need to escape speaks volumes to the government's inability to provide adequate support for the youth locked inside. This is emblematic of a string of issues inherent in Louisiana’s youth prisons and in the youth justice system broadly.

NATIONAL

The California Department of Education will create a protocol for schools to better address student mental health challenges, under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. This is an important step in ensuring that young people don't fall through the cracks and to intervene in the school-to-prison pipeline.

Here is an amazing story of redemption -- a Nike executive that admitted to having committed murder as a teen-- that reminds us that 67% of Louisianans believe youth have the power to change. 

A new report from The Sentencing Project reports that Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5x's the rate of whites. These staggering racial and ethnic disparities must be central to any effort to scale back mass incarceration.

The latest report from the National Disability Rights Network  reveals a disturbing trend of abuses at for-profit residential treatment centers for youth. These centers cannot be allowed to continue mistreating vulnerable kids.