Both of us have experienced firsthand how believing in others, and believing in oneself, can empower people to achieve great things.
Belief is a powerful tool in sports, which have long provided kids with the support and encouragement needed to be successful both on and off the field. Growing up on the football field, Shaun witnessed this firsthand. After having some special mentors of his own, he decided to use his platform as a professional athlete to mentor others and awaken the greatness in everyone – even those deemed “throwaways” by our criminal justice system.
When Alice was sentenced to life in prison for a nonviolent drug offense, people in and outside of the system never stopped believing in her. They inspired her to keep living up to her potential even while in prison, and their faith in her is what eventually got her out. Now, Alice works to help others trapped in the system and empowers them to reach their potential.
Our shared belief that restoring a focus on human dignity, rather than blind punishment, to the criminal justice system is critical for helping people change the trajectory of their lives has led us to partner with one another, along with Stand Together, to help youth who have been involved with the juvenile justice system.
Many of these young people did not have a lot of people who believed in them growing up. Some had never heard the words, “I love you” or “I’m proud of you.” And many of them don’t believe in themselves. But we’ve witnessed how, with the right support and community around them, these kids can flourish.
When we think about the issues with today’s criminal justice system, of which there are many, one thing is clear – too many of our young people are not given the proper support needed to thrive. Close to 60,000 kids under the age of 18 are incarcerated on a given day – and more than 500 are under the age of 12. Fortunately, social entrepreneurs across the country are developing programs to help justice-involved youth reach their potential. These programs, with their proven success, need to become the rule for juvenile justice – not the exception.
Take Dallas's Cafe Momentum, a program that is near and dear to us both because of its impressive success in helping young people “get their freedom legs,” as Alice likes to say. Founded by Chef Chad Houser, this award-winning restaurant provides a year-long paid internship program for justice-involved youth, equipping them with marketable professional skills by training them in different facets of the restaurant business. But the restaurant’s “secret recipe” for success is that it goes beyond just job training, providing its interns with case managers and a full ecosystem of support to help them work through personal obstacles such as anger management issues and trauma, and learn life skills such as parenting techniques and financial literacy.
Most importantly, the program empowers kids to believe in themselves and take pride in their abilities.
The majority of young people who become involved with the system come from troubled backgrounds. Growing up, they lacked encouragement, support, and guidance in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods – and ended up making some mistakes that landed them in the system. Incarceration only reinforces their treatment as “throwaways,” and does nothing to help them get back on the right path.
One of the strongest risk factors for recidivism is unemployment, but the juvenile justice system does a poor job of providing education to incarcerated youth or helping them prepare for a job. A 2019 study estimates that only about a third of incarcerated youth re-enroll in school upon their release.
Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Cafe Momentum interns have enrolled in high school, graduated, or received their GED. And in a recent cohort, 0% of program participants were adjudicated or reconvicted. It seems the proof is in the pudding – literally. After being rescued from the system, these kids were at this year's Super Bowl preparing food for NFL legends – demonstrating that by believing in people, we can empower them to achieve things they may have never thought possible for themselves.
It's easy to understand why many kids, who leave the justice system with the stain of a criminal record and lack of support system, would turn back towards crime. But it does not have to be this way.
Cafe Momentum is expanding to other cities like Nashville and Pittsburgh, and communities across the country should follow suit with their own bottom-up, localized solutions. Many already have. Boston Uncornered helps gang-involved and incarcerated young people obtain higher education and become mentors for other young people in their neighborhoods – 70% of program participants matriculate to college, and 91% do not recidivate.
Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) connects justice-involved youth with mentors and role models in the Bay Area. Across its programs, 90% of participants meet their education or career goals.
And UTEC, based in Massachusetts, provides job training, educational support, mental health treatment, and even transitional coaching to build self-confidence and help justice-involved youth thrive. About 80% of participants have obtained or sustained employment outside the program.
All of these programs share a common thread – if you believe in people, instead of writing them off as throwaways, they will rise. Solutions that view people who have been in the justice system as talented individuals with limitless potential, instead of problems to be managed, need to be scaled to the rest of the country.
But we are concerned that amid national conversations on rising crime, there is a danger that the focus will return to solutions that appear tough on crime, but in reality only serve to lock more kids away for longer while doing nothing to improve public safety. Over-incarceration is not "tough-on-crime" at all. In fact, it only proliferates crime: prison is the best place for youth to get a graduate degree in criminality, and it does very little to hold them accountable for their actions in a way that creates behavior change. This costs communities and taxpayers in the long run.
The purpose of the criminal justice system is to keep communities safe. Therefore, we should not be measuring our success on the number of people we arrest or the amount of time they spend in jail, but rather by the number of crimes prevented and the people we get to turn their backs on crime. Programs like Cafe Momentum are a better way to improve public safety and reduce crime. They’re also the right thing to do.
Alice Marie Johnson is founder and CEO of Taking Action for Good and author of "After Life: My Journey from Incarceration to Freedom." Shaun Alexander was drafted in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft by the Seattle Seahawks and went on to set numerous franchise records. In 2005, Alexander was recognized as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. He is an author and works with the Stand Together Community on strategic partnerships.
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