Youth Voices Rising writer Spring Keosoupha. Courtesy of Keosoupha.
By Spring Keosoupha, The Imprint, May 17, 2023
Based on my personal experience, I do not believe that children and youth should be incarcerated or detained. When this happens, it does harm to them that will last throughout their lives. Incarceration impairs their development and limits the life outcomes for adolescents. Resources could be better used to rehabilitate youth by offering them services and support. Many youths who have experienced trauma will not receive the help they need in order to overcome it. The goals of alternatives should be aimed at rebuilding individuals and strengthening families, but there is a punishment-based model of policing instead.
As a juvenile, I was taken away from my family. This disrupted my whole life by severing every tie that connected me to my existence. Contact with family and friends was cut off. There were short visits and sporadic collect calls, but these proved to be futile efforts of preserving contact over the years. It was difficult to maintain relationships with my family because I lost contact with most of them. School was no longer a priority because I was stuck in a juvenile justice system that did not value my education. I did not get the foundation that I would need to survive in the real world. This same system did not value my future or care to see if I had one. My religious beliefs also did not matter. I was completely separated from my long-standing community support that I had in my church group back at home. My art and recreational activities were not factored in either. I had many different passions that were extinguished by my incarceration. Stripping away everything that I cared about left me feeling broken and hopeless.
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