The Injustice of Juvenile Justice System
When I was in high school, I started following Nicholas Kristof’s column. I was impressed by his travels, the thoughts he put into his article, and the amount of people he influenced. Then I read the book that he co-authored with his wife Sheryl Wudun, “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.” In it, the contemporary history of China was nothing like the history I had learned from school in China. Somehow I felt betrayed, mad, ashamed, and inspired at the same time. All those feelings rushed to me and mingled unlike anything I have experienced before. The truth behind Kristof’s work not only changed my worldview, but also made me aspire to be like him, to enlighten more people from ignorance and inspire change within them.
When I was a freshman, I stayed in an orphanage in India. For one month, I taught, fed, clothed children from the slums, and developed a close bond with one paraplegic boy: only six years old, blind in one eye, with limbs amputated by human traffickers who used child beggars to earn money (just like in the movie Slumdog Millionaire). Later when I talked to the director of the orphanage, he pointed at the orphans playing in front of us and told me: “Look at them, you think they are unfortunate, but they are only one percent of those rescued from the street.”
India opened my perspective on how privileged I am back at home — and the need for me to take more responsibility. The juvenile justice system is paralyzed in India. However, I still hear horrific stories that relate to the system in America. I want to channel the broadened enlightenment and perspective that I experienced from Kristof’s works in order to investigate and inform people about the issues in the American juvenile justice system.
Last year, I investigated extensively about the juvenile justice system. My angle was: Are foster youths criminally charged for their actions that would not result in charges for non-foster youth? Having interviewed Presiding Judge Michael Nash of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court, three experienced attorneys, and former foster youth and advocacy groups, I realized that there are so many other problems relating to the system that I cannot possibly finish reporting in only one project.
In the next four months, I want to keep exploring issues relating to the juvenile justice system, issues that include the foster care system and juvenile probation system. For example, why are we still filing criminal charges against commercially and sexually exploited children who are viewed as victims by the society? To what extent is LA County Juvenile Probation still using solitary confinement on kids? Does LA County’s Department of Children and Family Services want to wash its hands of cross-over between kids in the foster care system and the juvenile probation system? When kids are locked up by LA County in probation camps or juvenile halls, what kind of education do they receive? And many more questions such as these.
I want to use this blog to write real stories, examine those issues, and share my thoughts.