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COMMENTARY: Determining the right answer begins with asking the right question.
What games do young people play when there’s no place to go?
The answer is horrifying. Some play bang, bang at The Streets at
Southpoint and other places in Durham.
The follow-up question is even more dismaying. What do we do with
youth when we’re fed up with their play?
Lock them up and throw away the keys. Wrong answer.
Recent skirmishes at Durham’s lavish mall have triggered the
panic button among residents preparing for Christmas shopping. On December 8,
one person was assaulted during a robbery outside a store at the mall. This follows an incident on Black Friday that has residents increasing the rate of head scratching
aimed at making sense of the madness. Three people were wounded, and three
others were injured. The shooting victims include a 10-year-old, injured by a
ricocheting bullet.
Criminals are getting younger. Is that true? What happens when
children get caught in playing deadly games? Do we lock them up? Do we send
them away? Do we give them another chance? How many?
What about their victims?
Questions. Questions. Questions.
One more question. What happens when clashing answers respond to a
different question?
The answer – a ball of confusion.
On Monday, members of the Durham Board of County Commissioners
will vote on the construction of a new and expanded $30 million youth detention
center with space to house 60 juveniles.
County officials say the plan follows a court order to create an
alternative to separate juveniles and adults in the Durham County jail. The
order was part of the settlement in a civil lawsuit filed by Julia Graves after
the death of her 17-year-old daughter, Uniece Gleanae Fennell, who was found hanging
by County detention officers at the County detention center. Fennell was a
minor at the time of her death. She occupied more than a year in jail after
being charged in a drive-by shooting.
What do we learn from Fennell’s death?
The answer, according to County officials, is to build a separate
place for juveniles facing felonies. The alternative is to locate places
outside the county. It’s not the perfect answer, but is there a more valid
option?
Members of Durham Beyond Police (DBP) have a different answer. No
more jails. No more prisons. No more police. Invest all the money in prevention.
All of it.
DBP’s answer addresses what to do before a juvenile has a gun in
their hand. Another imperfect answer.
The varied answers reflect responses to different, albeit connected,
questions.
DBP answer, “what games do young people play when there’s no
place to go?”
County officials answer, “what do we do with youth when we’re fed
up with their play?”
DBP offers the correct answer. We need wraparound services to
support troubled youth and their parents.
County officials get it right. We need an alternative to the
outdated youth detention center and to sending juveniles to another county.
One answer stops the problem before it happens. The other
addresses what to do after things are out of control.
The answer may require a different set of questions.
It is true. The criminal justice system sucks. The school to prison
pipeline is a real “thing”. It is true, more money needs to be invested in mental
health options.
It is true. Juveniles are committing violent crimes. We can’t
treat them like adults, but…but, what’s the answer?
It may help to accept the frailty of most of the answers. They
fit the bottomless agendas of policy makers stuck on the assumptions of their campaign
speeches and mission statements. When it becomes more critical to prove the merits
of their claims, the answer consumes the breath of youth clinging to life.
This is not a dissertation or master’s thesis. This is not a
problem to be solved with the victor winning the great prize - the prize of elected
office. The lives of Black and Brown youth transcend the movement of pieces on a chess
board. No, this is not a game.
We hear your answer.
Let’s try a different question.
What can we do to support youth caught up in a world of trouble
after having no place to play?
Another imperfect question.
The right answer is on both sides of the table.
Your move.
