When I was a teenager caught in a teenage justice system, I learned something that President Trump refused to accept: The system touches most children, and children’s treatment makes communities less safe like enemies of the state.
This week, Trump announcedScheme ofTo deploy 800 National Guard soldiers at Washington DC, threatened that cities like Okland and Baltimore could be next. Along with this, he is demanding that DCProse children prosecuteAs an adults as a young man of 14 years. This is the same unsuccessful playbook – reply to complex social problems with more police, more cages for children, and now, soldiers on American roads.
It is especially absurd that the crime is actually falling into cities he is threatening. Baltimore is experiencing one of its lowest homogeneous rates in decades,23 percent below last year aloneMy hometown from Okland has seenSimilar progressThrough community investment, not militarization.
Trump’s rhetoric actually changes young life. For example, my colleague J. Waskease was sentenced to 31 years in an adult prison when he was 16 years old-the same kind of sentence that is being made by President Champion. The system fully wrote Vaske’s. Despite every obstacle, the adult gel system threw it at it, Vaske’s honor earned six associate degrees with respect and with co-establishment programs for other disorganized youth.
Today, Vaske’s Policy and Legal Services Manager Resolve community In Ockland, where I work. He graduated Summa cum loud from San Francisco State University. But the change of Vaskease happened despite trying as an adult, not because of this.
The story of Vaske’s shows what we see in our programs. We work with over 100 youths every year – children have left the system. Nevertheless, 94 percent report of our participants increased concerned and emotional welfare, while 100 percent develop new skills. Compare this to the teen hall in California, with the average cost of taxpayersOver $ 300,000To make chaos per year per year, stillSees a lot of recurrence rateWe are truly spending more than a fourth million dollars per child to have more likely for future crimes.
The data is heavy. In Okland – One of those cities threatened with the deployment of National Guard – Community Works West found that the youth were only one in his restructural justice program13 percent recurrence rate in two yearsIn one-fifth place in the cost of traditional prosecution.Research continuously showsThe youth processed in adult systems have a higher recurrence rate than age-appropriate programs.
Another city of Baltimore, in the scenic spots of Trump, provides a single starrer example. Under the leadership of Mayor Brandon Scott, the city is experiencing its lowest murder rate on record42 through summer youth campsExtended entertainment centers hour, and violence obstruction programs that employ pre -criminals to mediate conflicts. National Guard not through adult prosecution of soldiers or children, but through investment in young people. Treating children like children.
The choice is not complex. We can follow the path of Trump and create more victims by wasting the outstanding dislocation of children – taxpayers. Or we can follow the leadership of cities such as Baltimore and Okland, can invest in programs that actually work.
Crime rates are falling across the country, where DC is also includedCrime fell 35 percent in 2024The last thing we need is a return to fails in “difficult” policies that make communities less secure and destroy the generations of young life.
I know that it likes to be written by a system that only sees your worst moment. Children need care, not cage. They require the bosses that understand their struggles, communities that see their ability, and the leaders who believe in other occasions. Trump has a documents to decide on young people of color – that once Called for execution Among the five black and Latin teen in the Central Park Five Case, who were later Excluded by DNA evidenceWe cannot let him repeat those mistakes at the national level.
Vamsi Palagummi is the Managing Director of United United for Restoralizing Youth Justice, whose commitment to support the underscripted population comes from her own experience as a youth, spends time in teen halls and is placed on probationary,
