LJ Younger remembers the precise second the felony justice system modified her life.
She was a straight-A scholar, a mom and within the throes of postpartum despair when an emotional outburst led to a home incident. She turned herself in, accepted accountability and anticipated to finish neighborhood service.
As an alternative, she was charged with aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, jailed for 4 months in Harris County and positioned on probation for what would stretch into 14 years because of the excessive price of court-ordered restitution.
“I wasn’t going to let it break me,” Younger mentioned. “I did what I needed to do. I labored, went again to high school, and studied psychological well being. However I by no means forgot what that have taught me concerning the system.”
In the present day, she finds herself again in that system, this time because the mom of a son incarcerated in a non-public jail. He was identified with conduct dysfunction in second grade and Younger spent years preventing for companies that by no means got here. As he acquired older, time and choices ran out. He was swept into the streets and arrested. Now, Younger says, he’s been warehoused in a facility hours away, his psychological well being worsening whereas medical and emotional wants go unmet.
“He was already susceptible. He had a chemical imbalance. He made errors. And now he’s sitting in a cell the place they don’t even reply to medical requests,” she mentioned. “I haven’t heard from him in days. And no person has solutions.”
Younger’s story captures the complicated, layered actuality behind Houston’s youth violence disaster, a cycle formed by poverty, untreated psychological sickness, substance abuse and systemic neglect. And she or he’s not alone.
“These youngsters aren’t monsters,” she mentioned. “They’re damaged. They’re determined. And we’ve given them no means out.”
Younger was one in all a number of neighborhood members who lately spoke at Dying for Consideration: Our Youth in Disaster, a city corridor hosted by activist Deric Muhammad on the Kashmere Multi-Service Heart. The purpose was to confront the often-ignored connection between youth drug use and violent crime and uplift the voices of these closest to the difficulty.
“We’ve seen an exorbitant quantity of violence this summer time,” mentioned Muhammad. “And too usually, if you dig into the small print, the perpetrator was beneath the affect of medicine.”
Violence amongst youth is linked to different adolescent points like homelessness, substance abuse, weight problems, tutorial failure and psychological well being, requiring elevated public well being consciousness and interventions. Texas Juvenile Justice Division reviews a 108% improve in murder costs and 44% improve in gun circumstances from 2019 to 2024, with 8,686 probationers and fewer than 1% sentenced to state amenities.
“If we preserve ignoring drug abuse in our communities, we’ll preserve burying our children,” Muhammad mentioned. “The violence isn’t random. It’s fueled by trauma, habit and desperation.”
Muhammad structured the panel on the occasion to mirror “generational disconnection.” He seated youth leaders and older mentors on reverse sides of the stage to spark trustworthy dialogue and therapeutic.
“We’re too usually locked in a battle for generational supremacy,” he mentioned. “But when we sit down and pay attention to those youngsters, they’ll inform us find out how to assist them.”
A kind of voices belonged to Romellow Robins, a peer mentor with Destined for Empowerment, an area program serving previously incarcerated or system-impacted youth.
“I used to be the black sheep. I acquired locked up. And folks I believed have been my household all disappeared,” Robins instructed the Defender. “Solely my mama picked up the cellphone.”
Now targeted on guiding others via what he endured, Robins challenges older generations to cease judging and begin mentoring.
“We, as a Black neighborhood, don’t stick collectively. We have now all the time been in opposition to one another, or the system, or greed or cash, all the time turned us in opposition to one another,” Robins mentioned. You all ought to have been there to assist us out, to show us to raise ourselves as an alternative of sure individuals who will take a look at you after which simply choose you or deal with you based mostly on what you’ve been via.”
A veteran of the streets mentors youth
Shawn Allison, neighborhood violence interrupter, mentioned he sees his youthful self in immediately’s teenagers.
Allison mentioned he was drawn into the streets as a type of revolt and emotional survival.
“I used to be the second baby. My brother was nice at every little thing. I began performing out as a result of I finished getting consideration at residence,” he mentioned. “When the OGs (Unique Gangsters) within the streets instructed me they have been pleased with me, I stayed.”
In the present day, Allison helps youth unpack trauma and perceive the results of glorifying felony existence.
“I used to wish to be Scarface, Frank White, Nino Brown,” he mentioned. “However if you play the tape all the way in which to the tip, all of them die.”
He warned that many teenagers don’t see previous the cash and fame till it’s too late.
“We have now to show them to play the entire tape. Don’t cease the story on the half with the automobiles and followers,” Allison mentioned. “Get in a room with these youngsters. Allow them to speak. Don’t speak at them. That’s how we break the cycle.”
The Actual options aren’t in a jail cell
Audio system on the city corridor agreed that the core options are already identified; they simply aren’t adequately funded or prioritized. Younger says authorities officers are misplacing priorities relating to youth incarceration and medicines. The expectation is for middle-class and poor folks to donate to help applications to uplift the youth, however households battle financially.
“We don’t want extra prisons. We want extra trades applications. Extra remedy. Extra job entry”
LJ Younger, Houston resident
“The price of wages has gone up and wages are stagnant. Households aren’t current sufficient for the youngsters, in order that they discover methods to get consideration,” mentioned Younger. “It’s a must to open up doorways and alternatives for that to occur. However we’re apprehensive concerning the authorities funding extra prisons.”
Group applications like Change Occurs!, My Brother’s Keeper Houston, and Destined for Empowerment supply actual help from mentoring to trauma counseling to re-entry steering. However they continue to be underfunded whereas the state allocates billions to develop correctional infrastructure.
“We don’t want extra prisons. We want extra trades applications,” she mentioned. “Extra remedy. Extra job entry.”
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