Juvenile Justice System Is Not The Punishment Of The...

Restore the Youth, Restore the Community A Collaborative Action Plan to Reduce Recidivism in Englewood LuGary Davis Urban Community Development- PPA 505 Professor James L. Miles Sr. March 17, 2015 Overview â€Å"The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime† (Du Bois, 1903). Though W.E.B. Du Bois wrote this quote well over a century ago, it still reflects the truth we hold today. This is especially apparent when we examine the intent of the modern juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system operates under a system referred to as juvenile court. Although this system was developed in Cook County, Illinois in the late†¦show more content†¦These reforms encompass everything from the use of solitary confinement to guidelines that prevent a youth from even entering the institutional side of juvenile justice by using community resources (E. Blaskey, personal communication, February 28, 2015). One of the most popular ideas motivating this reform is the concept of restorative justice. Restorative justice looks at accountability a bit differently from previous classic models. In the past, accountability was about the punishment matching the crime which boils down to the classic biblical thought, â€Å"an eye for an eye.† Restorative justice defines accountability as taking responsibility for your behavior and taking action to repair the harm (BARJ, 1995). Instead of completing a punishment unrelated to the victims, in restorative justic e, an offender must come to terms with the outcome of their behavior to the victims and other vital stakeholders in an effort to help heal all parties. The neighborhood of Englewood in Chicago, Illinois definitely knows the effects of juvenile crime on their community. Englewood is located on Chicago’s south side and is bordered by Garfield Boulevard to the north, 75th Street to the south, Racine Avenue to the west and State Street to the east. According to the Social IMPACT Research Center (2014), Englewood has a poverty rate percentage of 42.5%, second only to Riverdale. This means that nearly half of the residents in Englewood live below the poverty