JDAI Site Updates
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| Norfolk City, Virginia, Councilwoman Daun Hester |
Norfolk Convenes Community Event on Racial Disparities
The City of Norfolk, Virginia, collaborated with Old Dominion University to sponsor a town hall meeting on the overrepresentation of minority youth in its juvenile justice system. More than 300 people attended the standing-room-only event, including students, educators, court personnel, policymakers, advocates and elected officials.
Shay Bilchik, founder and director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University, was keynote speaker. Virginia Congressman Robert Scott, Norfolk City Councilwoman Daun Hester and Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim gave opening remarks.
Norfolk Circuit Judge Jerrauld C. Jones credited JDAI practices with reducing the number of youth admitted to detention and with reducing length of stay. The Norfolk Juvenile Detention Center, once housing as many as 110 youth, currently operates with an average population of approximately 45, Jones said.
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| Virginia Congressman Robert Scott |
One goal of the event was to raise awareness of statistics showing that although black residents make up less than one half of Norfolk’s overall population, black youth are represented four times more than white youth in the city's juvenile justice system. "By bringing this issue to the public’s attention we hope to mobilize the community to do what is needed to fix the disproportionate minority contact of youth within Norfolk’s juvenile justice system," Mayor Fraim says.
Clinton Lacey, a site manager with the W. Haywood Burns Institute, works with the Norfolk JDAI committee on strategies for reducing bias against youth of color. He challenged the audience to help debunk common misconceptions and myths regarding people of color and the criminal justice system.
To view the town hall in its entirety, click here.
For more information contact Virginia state JDAI Coordinator Beth Stinnett at beth.stinnett@djj.virginia.gov.
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