STATISTICS
WINTER 2016, ALWAYS FREE
PERFORMING
INCARCERATED YOUTH, ARTISTS, AND ADVOCATES WORK TO TRANSFORM THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
WHAT YOU HOLD IN YOUR HANDS
is the result of many minds, hearts, and hopes. This Performing Statistics publication is one of the many fruits of our time working with incarcerated youth this summer in Richmond, VA. Three days a week for eight weeks a group of teens incarcerated at the Richmond Detention Center came to ART 180, a local youth art nonprofit, to work with lawyers from Legal Aid Justice Center and artists and activists from across the city.
More than anything, we want you to listen. To learn. To look and see humans. To read and see brothers, sons, and friends. To understand and not to judge people by their past, but support them to realize their future. These youth have the direct experience to speak on the system’s impact. They are the experts we should listen to. Their voices will help create a more just, whole, and equitable world. Thank you for taking the time to hear them. We hope you will find their art and words as powerful as we have.
Photo by Mark Strandquist
WHAT’S INSIDE: ART AND WRITING CREATED BY INCARCERATED YOUTH
Photo by Craig Zirpolo
icons by iconify.it
JUVENILE JUSTICE STATISTICS CURRICULUM SUGGESTIONS FOR HOW TO USE THE MATERIALS IN YOUR CLASSROOM GET INVOLVED! WWW.PERFORMINGSTATISTICS.ORG
WHY DO WE ACT? WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
Because VA sends more students to law enforcement than any other state in the country.1
BECAUSE MORE THAN 9,500 YOUTH WERE LOCKED UP IN VA IN 2015 AND OVER 500 LOCKED UP IN A STATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY.2
BECAUSE WE SPEND 12 TIMES MORE TO INCARCERATE ONE TEEN IN ONE YEAR THAN TO EDUCATION THEM. 3
BECAUSE 40% OF INCARCERATED YOUTH LOCKED UP ARE BETWEEN 8 AND 14 YEARS OLD.2 BECAUSE 78.3% OF INCARCERATED YOUTH ARE REARRESTED AFTER 3 YEARS. 2 BECAUSE 64 PERCENT OF COMMITTED INCARCERATED YOUTH HAVE SIGNIFICANT MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS. 2
$12,751
RPS PER STUDENT EXPENDITURE
$150,994
DJJ PER YOUTH EXPENDITURE
LET’S SAY IT TOGETHER...
PRISONS DON’T WORK! OK, it’s a huge problem. How can a newspaper help?
This is more than a publication. It’s a mobile exhibit full of amazing art, writing, and ideas generated by a group of incarcerated youth. It’s not just for you to read. Cut it up. Put it in your room, office, or community space. Use it to better understand the issue. Use it to hear from those most impacted by the system. Use it to help guide, prompt, and facilitate discussions in a classroom, public space,
How else can I use the newspaper? Are you a teacher? Go to our website www. performingstatistics.org/teachingtools for free teaching exercises. Spread the Newspaper in your community! The newspaper has been designed specifically to be cut up and turned into posters. Post them throughout your community space, school, gallery, storefront window, or city streets.
Do you train law enforcement? Teachers? School Resource Officers or other adults that work with youth? We worked with incarcerated youth to create their own police training manuals and we do trainings.
dinner table, or political center of power. 1 Susan Ferris, Virginia tops nation in sending students to cops, courts: Where does your state rank? Center for Public Integrity (Apr. 10, 2015) 2 Data Reference Guide 2015, http://www.djj. virginia.gov/pdf/AboutDJJ/DRG/FY2015_DRG.pdf 3 Block, Andrew, Department of Juvenile Justice Overview Presentation, Slide 7, January 6, 2015.
PERFORMING STATISTICS INCARCERATED YOUTH LEAD THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE Photo by Craig Zirpolo Performing Statistics is an ongoing project that connects incarcerated teens, artists, and Virginia’s leading policy experts to transform the juvenile justice system. During the summer of 2015, a group of incarcerated teens from the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center left their facility, came to a local youth arts nonprofit, ART 180, and co-created projects and mobile art installations about their lives, struggles, and visions for a more just society. Each week the teens worked with lawyers from Legal Aid Justice Center to understand the juvenile justice system. They then worked with artists to combine their personal experiences, needs, and struggles with their new legal knowledge to produce radio pieces, silk screen designs, an interactive gallery, and mobile photo installations.
These exhibitions are traveling across the state [to schools, museums, public spaces, police departments, and many others] to help spark dialogue about the causes, impacts, and alternatives to the juvenile justice system. We want to work directly with local organizers and those most affected by this issue to target decision-makers and create change. The mobile gallery exists to inspire CONVERSATION and ACTION on this issue. Want to bring the project to your town or city? Contact us at: performingstatistics@gmail.com Find out more at our website: www.performingstatistics.org
Photo by Mark Strandquist
IN RICHMOND, VA, INCARCERATED YOUTH INCARCERATED TEENS DECLARE TRAIN LOCAL POLICE RECRUITS WE NEED AN EDUCATION, NOT INCARCERATION. INVEST IN US! Working with Richmond’s Chief of Police, we organized a series of immersive, arts-based workshops using the exhibition as a catalyst to train all new police recruits, including a series of police training manuals created by the teens.
“
”
Photo by Mark Strandquist
Photo by Evan Hoffman
PERFORMING STATISTICS AWARDED $500,000 TO CONTINUE ADVOCATING WITH AND FOR INCARCERATED YOUTH ART 180 and Legal Aid Justice Center were awarded $500,000 from the Robins Foundation to turn Performing Statistics into a program connecting the stories of incarcerated youth with legal advocates to continue the movement toward youth justice. We’re looking for partners to expand our impact across the state and support the work being done. Contact us to find out more!
A “Parade for Youth Justice” was designed to function as a mobile, people-powered art exhibit featuring hundreds of pieces of art made by incarcerated youth. Parade participants wore shirts and held posters silk screened by the teens, carried huge photo banners of their portraits, and worked with musicians to perform protest chants that the teens wrote. The parade began with a rally at the VA General Assembly Building, where we lit up our “PRISONS DON’T WORK” LED light banner, and marched the artwork down Richmond’s main avenue during the height of rush hour.
The Following Pages
include the incredible art and advocacy materials created by the incarcerated teens. This newspaper has been designed for you to cut out the posters and use however you wish! Spread them in your school, office, or city streets!
Photo by Terry Brown
Photo by Craig Zirpolo
Why are phone numbers at the bottom of the pages? The teens recorded a multitude of audio pieces that you can access anywhere in the US with a cell phone. Simply call the number included and the corresponding extension to hear the teen’s speak to you as you see their images.
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #4
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #5
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #6
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #9
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #1
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #2
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #11
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #11
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #8
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #7
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #9
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #10
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #10
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #11
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #11
www.performingstatistics.org
Hear more from the youth by calling 804.234.3698 Ext #3
WE ALL HAVE SO MUCH TO OFFER!
JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR YOUTH JUSTICE! Performing Statistics is a proud member of the RISE coalition (Reinvest In Supportive Environments for Youth), a nonpartisan campaign coalition in support of evidence-informed alternatives to youth incarceration that rehabilitate youth, keep families connected, and make communities safer. Experts, incarcerated youth, their families, law enforcement leaders and many others agree...PRISONS DON’T WORK! Thankfully RISE is advocating for community based alternatives that do! Find out more at www.riseforyouth.org Contact info: info@riseforyouth.org
Photo by Mark Strandquist
CAN YOU DO TO HELP CREATE A WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! WHAT WORLD WHERE NO YOUTH ARE LOCKED UP?
Fill out, photograph and email or Instagram your response using #prisonsdontwork
JOIN THE RISE COALITION! There are so many ways to make a difference! Sign the RISE for Youth Petition and tell the Governor and Virginia Legislators that you support the re-investment of funds away from large juvenile prisons into evidence-informed community based alternatives to youth incarceration. http://www.riseforyouth. org/sign-the-petition/
Tell your story. If you or a family member have experienced issued in the juvenile justice system and have opinion on how to make things better, we want to hear about it. Contact: http://www.riseforyouth.org/take-action/tell-us-your-story/ Join us for our spring actions during the General Assembly Session http://www.riseforyouth.org/news/upcoming-events/
Performing Statistics has been made possible because of the many people who donated their hard work, brilliance and love to this movement. And through the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, the Ford Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollination Project, Surdna Foundation and and the Wilbur Moreland Havens Charitable Foundation.
Call or write and tell them youth prisons don’t work, but alternatives do! You can find your legislator at: http://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/ Write an op-ed or letter to the editor on why juvenile justice reform is important. For tips on how to write an op-ed or letter to the editor download the RISE for Youth Action Kit here: http://www.riseforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RISE-Action-Kit.pdf
Join the Youth for RISE Advisory Network. Youth and young adults ages 13 to 24 with experience in the juvenile justice system and/or interest in juvenile justice reform are encouraged to join the Youth for RISE Advisory Network. For more information contact Da’Quon Beaver at daquon@justice4all.org.