Worthy investments: Newark’s move from detention to education
Childhood is a time of crucial development for people — kids are the ones who will grow up and become the future of a nation. But then what kind of future can one expect when Black children are five times as likely as white children to be arrested and committed? What does that spell out for a state like New Jersey, whose racial disparity rate stands at 30.64?
The statistics were published in 2017 and based on collection of data from the Department of Justice in 2015, but the issue itself far predates the aughts. Juvenile incarceration, targeted at youth of color, became a trend especially with the coining of the term “superpredator” by University of Pennsylvania professor John Dilulio in 1995.
In his report, he described the juveniles of Philadelphia and other major metropolitan areas as “elementary school youngsters who pack guns instead of lunches.” And, as much as the media’s accuracy and truth is contested currently, its influence over audiences is instrumental in public perception of an issue at large.
“Media coverage drives public opinion. Public opinion drives political decision making,” said Laura Cohen, the director of the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic and a distinguished clinical professor of Law at Rutgers — Newark. “This unfortunately was bad public policy that derived, in large part I think, from the media focus on the question of juvenile crime because it makes people watch TV and it sells papers and also from John Dilulio’s doomsday warnings about this and the really kind of tragic thing is that he later recanted the whole thing. He had said very publicly, ‘I was wrong.’”
But even though Dilulio later admitted he was wrong, his theory has persisted and continued to harm Black children. The media is quick to judge and vilify children of color, such as seen in the “superpredator” phenomenon, specifically targeting communities from which they are bred. But to what extreme are those societies then analyzed for their own shortcomings?
Take New Jersey for example. According to the Juvenile Justice Commission, the highest ranking counties for juvenile sentencing are Camden County (22.04%) and Essex County (17.74%). Coincidentally, on the education track, the two rank 15 and 17 respectively in terms of quality, out of just 21 counties.
In fact, a real epidemic taking place in Essex County, specifically Newark is that of truancy: students being absent for upward of 10% of the school year. In spite of efforts to curb behavior like this through monetary incentives and home visits, the district has still failed to cure this problem. In the 2018–19 school year nearly a quarter of students had missed at least two week’s worth of classes between September and February alone.
Chronic absenteeism has proven to have detrimental effects on children — at least three-fourths of juveniles along the East Coast caught up in the justice system had histories of chronic absenteeism.
It doesn’t help that Newark rated 454th in the ranking of New Jersey public school districts in 2018.In comparison, the city’s crime-per-square-mile rate is nearly 12.8 times the national average.
This pattern is a self-perpetuating cycle — education is a key tool in combating poverty, but poverty is a driving factor behind students missing school in the first place. But that does not mean that nothing is being done to break it. Rather, responsibility falls into the hands of those who look to assume it and spur change.
Take for example Tim Adkins-Jones, the senior pastor of Newark’s own Bethany Baptist Church. In his three and a half years in the city, he has become involved in multiple programs to help its youth stay out of the juvenile justice system.
“Newark gets a bad rap, nationally and other places,” Adkins-Jones said. “There have been some struggles in the city, and when you’re away, and that’s all you get, that’s all you know. But living here is a very different experience.”
Adkins-Jones is involved with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and its campaign to close youth prisons, as well as My Brother’s Keeper. My Brother’s Keeper provides young people and those affected by the legal system with opportunities such as job fairs, haircuts and interview advising.
“When we think of justice issues, we have to recognize the factors that create crime,” the pastor said. “Crime is so often the result of poverty and lack, not having. Then that makes you ask the question, ‘Why do those situations exist?’ If crime is caused by poverty and lack, etcetera, why does that poverty and lack exist in the first place?”
As the Novak Djokovic Foundation and countless other studies have concurred, education is among the strongest tools for quelling crime, and investing in programs and ideologies such as these have impacted the city in positive ways — youth homicide and crime in general has dropped 40% in the last two years for Newark, the lowest level in decades. Meanwhile, enrollment into higher education programs has seen an upward trend, with a 70% increase at Rutgers — Newark.
Other programs that have gained traction as of late include the Brick City Peace Collective, the Newark Community Street Team, the Summer Employment Program and more that all call for community engagement. Mayor Ras Baraka also announced recently that the city would not be building another youth facility and would instead seek to make current detention centers more rehabilitative.
The results of merely shifting focus from punishment to remediation have demonstrated the beginnings of impactful change in a city that has been written off time and time again — sometimes all you need is a second chance.
“I find Newark to be a resilient, close-knit, loving passionate community. There are a lot of people who have lived here their whole life and they care very deeply about the city, there’s also a great deal of transplants as well that have come here because of what Newark can offer and because of what the community is like,” Adkins-Jones said. “There’s a negative sense from many people but I’ve experienced none of that — I’ve loved it here, I love the people, and I really count it a privilege to be able to serve here.”
