The juvenile justice system may be seen by some as a lesser form of adult prisons. However, in reality, the juvenile system is just as vicious and creative in its ways to keep us trapped. How so?
Juvenile courts have the authority to order young people to pay restitution to the victims of their crimes. And they often don’t consider what a child is able to pay.
But this system wasn’t always meant to hold us back.
This restitution system was created in the 1960s as a means for white juvenile offenders to avoid jail. It only now burdens Black youth because of our systemic overrepresentation within the juvenile justice system.
The Juvenile Law Center reported in 2022 that 77 percent of all restitution ordered goes uncollected leaving victims without payments and youth strapped with debt. The two parties who need healing the most, the victim and the youth, are trapped in a cycle of hurt while the system profits off of the chaos.
Leaving the juvenile justice system should be a cause for celebration for our youth, instead, it becomes a graduation into yet another anti Black system. It’s time to get rid of systems that hurt our children!