Juvenile Hall Becomes a Place of Learning and Healing for Youth

oung people who have been incarcerated often have learning disabilities, communication deficiencies and mental health problems that prohibit them from leading healthy, nonviolent lives upon release from prison. Many of these youth lack positive role models and, without the proper direction, often return to familiar lives of crime, drugs and gang affiliation after emancipation.

Although crime rates are dropping, violence is still a serious public health problem among youth in California. TCWF provided a two-year, $100,000 grant to Pacific News Service (PNS) to offer violence prevention activities to incarcerated youth to help them live healthier lives, both as detainees and upon their release.

PNS produces a weekly, 38-page newsletter, The Beat Within, which is written by 450 incarcerated youth and has a circulation of 1,400. The publication provides an opportunity for the youth to express themselves in constructive ways, have a voice in the public forum and build communication skills that can contribute to their success once they return to community life. Those that receive the newsletter include judges, probation officers, teachers, counselors, print and broadcast media and family members.

"There is an enormous need and hunger for these children to connect through communication," said Sandy Close, executive director of PCN. "Seventy percent of the 2 million prisoners in America today are functionally illiterate. When you help enhance these youths’ communication skills, you’re in essence giving them the most important tool to survive in society."

PNS also conducts weekly, hour-long workshops that unite professional writers and former detained juveniles with incarcerated youth to help improve reading and writing skills. At each workshop, the young people express their personal experiences through essays, poetry, letters, short stories and art, which are profiled in the newsletter. Currently, 26 writing workshops are offered each week at five county juvenile detention facilities in Northern California.

"This program offers a unique tool for violence prevention by building communication skills, providing civic engagement opportunities and making rehabilitation for incarcerated youth a much more effective, healthy process," said Tawnya Lewis, TCWF program officer. "Skills such as writing, self-expression and listening are essential to living a healthy, meaningful life, both when young people are incarcerated and after they have been released."

On April 29, PNS held its first "Expo of Youth Communicators" at the Youth Guidance Center, which is San Francisco’s juvenile hall. Civic arts and community organizations—such as the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet, the American Conservatory Theatre, jazz artists, skateboarding clubs, muralists and librarians—participated in the Expo alongside detained youth who showcased their skills through choral singing, rapping, skits, dancing, speech, art and poetry. Many of these groups were visiting juvenile hall for the first time.

"The Expo gave the community a new sense of what’s possible working with incarcerated youth," Close said. "And it gave the Youth Guidance Center the ability to position itself as a place of learning for the youth rather than just a detention facility."

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