Category: Juvenile Justice - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Iowa ACLU - COVID Money for Detention Center Unlawful

2/8/2022

Iowa ACLU: Scott County Using COVID Money For Juvenile Detention Center Is Unlawful

The ACLU of Iowa is taking steps to halt the use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds to build the largest juvenile detention facility in Iowa. They have sent a letter to the Scott County Board of Supervisors detailing why such a facility would be unjust and illegal.

https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/news/scott-county-using-covid-money-juvenile-detention-center-unlawful

If you would like to join the discussion, attend the February 18th Zoom meeting of the Juvenile Justice Coalition.

Julie Ross

Press Conference Regarding Juvenile Detention Center - Community Event

11/18/2021

CAN Press Conference Regarding Juvenile Detention Center
Sunday, November 21st at 3:00 pm

510 Warren ST
Davenport, IA

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
From: The QC Community Advocacy Network (CAN)
Event: COMMUNITY GROUP HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 21 TO VOICE YOUTH
CONCERNS AND CALL FOR COMMUNITY ACTION Contact: Avery Pearl, 563-320-6059
The QC Community Advocacy Network at qccommunityadvocacynetwork@gmail.com

The QC Community Advocacy Network announces a press conference at 3:00 PM, November 21, 2021, at 510 Warren St., Davenport, IA.

Presenters will share vital information addressing:

Expansion of the current Juvenile Detention Center
Disparities in the current Juvenile Justice System
Acquisition of the possible building site and its implications
Flaws in the Youth Assessment Center process
Lack of transparency and community involvement in the Juvenile Detention Center proposal
The Scott County Board of Supervisors refusal to accept professional opinions and best practices
Whether or not this constitutes the best use of Scott County taxpayer dollars for ongoing operating expenses
and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding
These issues concern all citizens because the County’s proposed expansion will require $16.8 million to build, and $1 million in annual operating costs, according to the 2019 plan. These numbers do not represent the current labor and material costs. Scott County supervisors are working around the referendum process by using $10 million in ARPA funding to evade public accountability. We all should ask where they are getting the rest of the money needed for site acquisition and land preparation. This will leave taxpayers saddled with paying an estimated $2 million in annual operating costs without your consent for years to come. You have the right to ask your Scott County supervisors, “Is this the best use of taxpayer dollars & ARPA funds?”

We are asking you to help make a difference by:

Voicing your opinion (in-person or virtually) during the Scott County Supervisors meeting at 9:00 AM, November 22, 2021, 600 W. 4th Street, Board Room, 1st Floor, Administrative Center, Davenport, Iowa
Calling or writing your elected officials and media outlets
Contact the Scott County Board of Supervisors:
** Tell them there is NO legitimate reason to rush this project and the community must be involved in the decision-making process.

Ken Beck (In favor of JDC proposal), Chair, ken.beck@scottcountyiowa.gov
John D. Maxwell (In favor of JDC proposal), Vice-Chair, john.maxwell@scottcountyiowa.gov Ken Croken (In opposition to JDC proposal), ken.croken@scottcountyiowa.gov
Brinson L. Kinzer (In favor of JDC proposal), brinson.kinzer@scottcountyiowa.gov
Tony Knobbe (In favor of JDC proposal), tony.knobbe@scottcountyiowa.gov
Thank you for your time, and together we CAN make a difference!

NAACP Press Conference on Juvenile Detention Center

11/9/2021

NAACP Press Conference on Juvenile Detention Center
Tuesday, November 9th at 10:30 am

Friends of MLK Interpretive Center
501 Brady ST
Davenport, IA 52803 (map)

Civil Rights Forum

On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, Davenport NAACP #4019 will host a press conference at 10:30 a.m. at the Friends of MLK Interpretive Center, 501 Brady St., Davenport, IA, addressing the proposed construction of a new Scott County Youth Detention Center which would triple the current capacity of 14 beds to a potential 60 beds.

NAACP President Mike Guster will be joined by Betty C. Andrews, President of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP State Area Conference of Branches and founder of the Iowa Summit on Justice & Disparities (www.IowaJusticeSummit.org); and Iowa State Representative Ako Abdul – Samad and other community leaders.

Please plan to attend if you are available. Thanks!

Julie Ross

Community Conversations on Youth Detention - After Action Report

10/31/2021

Community Conversations on Youth Detention - After Action Report

Davenport Bearing Witness

Although I am not in leadership with Davenport Bearing Witness, I wanted to share this information with our community. The following is an excerpt from Praxis: the Davenport Bearing Witness Newsletter. It describes the successful presentations on October 28th and 29th that we wrote about in this PACG blog post, Community Conversations - Youth Detention: Short and Long-Term Implications in Today's Issues. Many PACG members participated in the three offered events. I was proud to look around the room to see so many familiar faces! In addition, Davenport Bearing Witness now has a Facebook page to help you find out how you can connect to work on these important issues.

From Praxis: Ubuntu, is an African humanist philosophy based on a culture of sharing, openness, mutual dependence, dialogue and interpersonal encounter.
In Ubuntu, human existence reaches fulfillment as part of whole, society thrives on a common humanity, and forgiveness and reconciliation are prerequisites for preserving social harmony.

From We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities,
by Zach Norris.

"Now more than ever we need to engage with each other and with our democracy. We need to build our tolerance for constructive disagreement so that we feel safe participating. We need to make our voice heard in support of the kinds of government spending and programs that will support our well-being and safety. We know what the impact is of members in the community and neighbors who engage, who listen to each other across differences and become involved in helping each other out, and who help solve domestic challenges and share with each other."

Over the last 48 - 72 hours many of us experienced just a small taste of what an Ubuntu experience can feel like. The gatherings on Thursday evening and Friday were also reminders of the democratic process Zach Norris describes above. In a democracy, all of us have a role and accountable for keeping each other safe.

Big picture. Democracy is pretty cool. Slowly emerging out of the pandemic, it may have been a while since many of us have been in settings like we experienced at Friends of MLK Interpretive Center on Thursday and Eastern Iowa Community College on Friday. Dr. Wilson created a safe and inclusive space for us to embody and experience democracy.

Our panelists - Mike Guster, Scott Hobart, Jeremy Kaiser, and Marcy Mistrett - were awesome in respecting their differences of opinion. And even more impressively, and more frequently - areas where they are in agreement.

We will remember Thursday evening's powerful witness of young people and young adults, parents and grandparents, neighbors from all over Davenport.
The space was not large enough to hold all of our physical bodies.
On Friday, representatives from the faith, business, education, research and advocacy, philanthropic, elected officials and policy makers and community organizations also participated in a witness of the potential power of democracy.

In all, over 150 of us experienced and created a space for public discourse and democracy. Thank you all!

Our work ahead is to make sure the Scott County Board of Supervisors is listening.

The Quad-Cities Times wrote an article about these meetings here.

Allison Ambrose

PACG Book Club for January 2022

10/24/2021

**PACG Book Club for January 2022 - War on Us: How the War on Drugs & Myths About Addiction Have Created a War on All of Us by Colleen Cowles**

We will meet via Zoom on Monday, January 17th at 5:30 pm to discuss War on Us: How the War on Drugs & Myths About Addiction Have Created a War on All of Us by Colleen Cowles. We are not meeting in December, so you will have two months to read this book. Although it is long, it is reported to be very engaging and easy to read. Also, it is not as long as you might think since there are lots of references at the end!

I spent some time at the waronus.com website. This book is very relevant to the work the Civil Rights Forum is doing on criminal justice reform and juvenile justice reform. I wonder if PACG and its coalition partners might want to bring the author here (probably by Zoom) to speak?

Here is some information about the book from Goodreads:

"While the War on Drugs may have sounded like a good idea at one time, the consequences have been catastrophic. From physicians persecuted for providing health care to their patients to parents grieving the loss of their children to overdose or prison — we've all become victims of this war.

Our health, our families, our assets, our safety and our freedom are at risk:

One in three adults in the U.S. now has a criminal record.
Patients with severe illnesses or chronic pain are denied access to proven pain medications.
Over a trillion in taxpayer dollars in the U.S. alone has 'bought' the highest drug use, the highest overdose and the highest incarceration rates in the world.

In War on Us, Colleen Cowles raises the alarm and offers practical, proven reforms. There are answers, as long as we have the will to implement change. It’s time to end the War on Drugs — and the war on all of us. This book is the roadmap to do just that."

Click on my name for a Zoom link to the discussion.

Alta Price

Community Conversations on Youth Detention - Community Event

10/23/2021

Community Conversations - Youth Detention: Short- and Long-Term Implications and Today's Issues
October 28th & 29th, various times

Davenport Bearing Witness

Thursday, October 28, 6:00 pm. - 7:30 pm - MLK Interpretive Center, 501 Brady St, Davenport (map)

Friday, October 29, 8:00 am - 9:30 am - EICC Downtown Campus, 101 W. 3rd St, Davenport (map)

Friday, October 29 11:30 am - 1:00 pm - EICC Downtown Campus, 101 W. 3rd St, Davenport (map)

Panelists include:

Mike Guster, President, Davenport NAACP
Scott Hobart, Chief Juvenile Court Officer, 7th Judicial District
Jeremy Kaiser, Director, Scott County Juvenile Detention Center
Marcy Mistrett, Director of Youth Justice, The Sentencing Project.

The 75-minute conversations will be facilitated by Dr. LaDrina Wilson, founder and CEO of Iman Consulting, LLC. Iman Consulting provides leadership development programming and diversity, equity and inclusion education, and training. Dr. Wilson has spearheaded numerous initiatives to enhance understanding of diversity and social justice. She has volunteered as the state lead for Dream Corps Justice's Day of Empathy, which seeks to create more awareness of criminal justice issues and reform.

Panelists will make brief presentations and the community will participate by offering questions to the panel. Light refreshments will be served. Social distancing and masks will be implemented. For more information please write DavenportBearingWitness@gmail.com.

John DeTaeye

Adolescence, Race and Trauma Discussion - PACG Events

10/12/2021

Adolescence, Race, Trauma Discussion via Zoom
Monday, October 18th at 7 pm

Juvenile Justice Coalition

Adolescence, Race and Trauma Coalition

The Adolescence, Race, and Trauma group continues with discussion and actions inspired by Professor Kristen Henning. We are focusing on two strategies: community outreach through tutoring; and, ways to strengthen and involve neighbors and neighborhoods. Please join us so we can continue to build a broad coalition.

Contact Julie Ross for a Zoom link.

Julie Ross

Henning Webinar Rebroadcasts and More Action Locally

6/29/2021

Juvenile Justice Coalition
Thursday, July 1st, Tuesday, July 6th
at 7:00 pm and Other Times

No Hate In Our States

Knowledge is a key component for creating a better future for our youth.

Each week I submit podcast/documentary/book suggestions for "No Hate in Our States" to enhance understanding of racial disparity in our country. This week I am submitting the rebroadcast of the "Race, Adolescence, and Trauma" webinar originally offered on June 22nd. If you had the chance to watch the webinar, you know that it was a valuable tool in gaining understanding to some of the adverse social institutions that make difficult the lives and futures of our youth of color. Seeds of social change were suggested, but we need to gain collective knowledge and combine our energy to realize such change in our communities.

I encourage you to watch - or rewatch - this webinar. There are two ways to do this!

PACG will rebroadcast the webinar on Thursday, July 1st at 7:00 pm.
Please register for this Zoom meeting here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/raceadolescencetraumarebroadcast You will receive a link to log in via email after registration.

Due to the generosity of Professor Henning, you may register to watch a recording of the webinar at your own convenience. The recording will be available until 5:00 pm on July 6th. Registration for viewing this copyrighted video can be made here: https://pacg.z2systems.com/np/clients/pacg/eventRegistration.jsp?event=511& You may share this registration link with others who may benefit from viewing. Note: This video is no longer available for viewing, per our agreement with Prof. Henning.

Please invite friends and colleagues to register to view the recording in either of these ways!

If you attended the original webinar or watched the rebroadcast or recording, you are also invited to a meeting in which we hope to implement some of Professor Henning's suggestions. We will brainstorm and discuss ways to make change locally. This meeting will be Tuesday, July 6th 7:00 pm at the Metropolitan Community Church of the QC (2930 West Locust St in Davenport map).

Please help continue this important work. If you have questions, contact me, PACG Office Manager Julie Ross.

Julie Ross

Professor Kristin Henning

"Race, Adolescence and Trauma" Webinar - After Action Report

6/26/2021

"Race, Adolescence and Trauma" Webinar - After Action Report - And More Action Ahead!
Resources and Additional Recording Viewing Options

Juvenile Justice Coalition of the Quad Cities and Others

Several months ago, PACG’s Board of Directors member, Loxi Hopkins, attended an online conference where she had the opportunity to hear an amazing presentation on “Race, Adolescence, and Trauma” by Professor Kristin Henning of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Loxi was so inspired by this presentation, that she suggested at our next Board meeting that we should sponsor a webinar for our Quad City community. She knew that this could be useful as a tool to bring greater understanding and future action for those of us working locally for marginalized children.

We reached out to other local organizations, and soon Juvenile Justice Coalition of the QCA, Davenport NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizen) Council 10, One Human Family QCA, UUCQC (Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities) agreed to cosponsor a free webinar with PACG. As a group, we wanted a balance of citizens, as well as educators, law enforcement, local elected officials, and social service agencies in attendance.

After months of planning, we were proud to offer a 90-minute webinar on Tuesday, June 22nd.  The “Race, Adolescence, and Trauma” Zoom webinar was attended by almost 200 people (132 devices logged in, but we know that many of them involved groups of people watching together). After the presentation, Professor Henning answered some of the many questions submitted by the attendees.

If you were fortunate enough to attend the webinar, we know that you found that the information and ideas were presented clearly and logically, and in an engaging manner. Professor Henning touched upon ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments); perceptional and reactional differences of youth of color; analysis of national and local communities regarding disparities in responses (suspensions/detentions/law enforcement response) to infractions by youth of color, and much more. Her facts were supported by dedicated research and numerous studies; and shared resources with us. She also suggested some logical solutions to shrinking the chasm between treatment of white and minority youth.

PACG and the other sponsoring organizations have received many emails and phone calls praising the quality of the webinar. We are excited to begin to work in coalition to implement the things we learned.

If you were unable to attend, there are now several opportunities for you to watch a recording to benefit from Professor Henning’s research and presentation.

A webinar rebroadcast will be Thursday, July 1st at 7:00 pm via Zoom. PACG will host this meeting, with Michael Guster of Davenport NAACP as moderator. Registration is required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqcuCtqzstGtd82C2FNk7fLsVWlUdmKWBQ We encourage you to share information about this rebroadcast with friends, colleagues, and professionals who interact with youth, especially youth of color.

Due to the incredible generosity of Professor Henning, we are now able to also offer an online recording of the webinar for a very short period of time. Registration for viewing this copyrighted video can be made here: https://pacg.z2systems.com/np/clients/pacg/eventRegistration.jsp?event=511& You may share this registration link with others who may benefit from viewing. Note: this video is no longer available for viewing, per our agreement with Prof. Henning.

Those who attended the webinar, the rebroadcast or have watched the recording are invited to join us for the follow-up discussion on Tuesday, July 6th at 7:00 pm at
Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities (2930 West Locust St, Davenport, IA 52804 map).

This will be an in-person event, but we are exploring having a Zoom component for those who are unable to attend at the church. The problem with hybrid meetings is that it’s difficult to communicate as a whole. We are looking into this option and hope to have a solution for any potential problems.

Professor Henning has given us permission to share not only her suggested resources, but also a pdf of the PowerPoint she showed in the webinar. All links are available below.

The book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, written by Professor Henning, will be published in late September of this year. All of the resources mentioned here and in the webinar can be found there. You may pre-order it now wherever you get your books, or plan to get a copy at the local library.

PACG is proud to have been part of the group that brought Professor Henning to our community. Additionally, we are proud to have Board members who recognize a good presentation when they see one, and are willing to work hard to bring the work to us in the Quad Cities. We continue to strive for a community that promotes the common good.

And I we would like to add that, although this blog post has been added as an After Action Report to our Weekly Email Update and PACG website, there is still a lot of work to be done. Let’s get busy!

Julie Ross, PACG Office Manager
and Jeannie Price, PACG Webmaster

Resource links from the webinar:
Seeing What’s Underneath: A Resource for Understanding Behavior and Using Language in Juvenile Court

Pair of ACEs Tree

Blueprint: Evidence-Based Programs That Work With Youth

Research Showing That Schools Rely on “Cops and No Counselors”

Iowa Department of Human Rights highlights racial disparities in their 2020 Racial Disparities Report

Scott County Detention Data

Annie E. Casey Alternatives to Detention

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Follow-Up Work for "Race, Adolescence and Trauma" Webinar - What You Can Do Now

6/22/2021

"Race, Adolescence and Trauma" Webinar Follow-Up Work Thursday, July 1st and Tuesday, July 6th at 7:00 pm

Online and
2930 Locust St
Davenport, IA (map)

Juvenile Justice Coalition of the Quad Cities

A partnership between the Juvenile Justice Coalition of the Quad Cities, LULAC Council 10, Davenport NAACP, One Human Family QCA, Progressive Action for the Common Good and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities is sponsoring the "Race, Adolescence and Trauma" webinar with Professor Kristin Henning on Tuesday, June 22nd at noon.

If you are unable to attend the webinar, you can still help us make change in our local communities! PACG will rebroadcast the webinar on Thursday, July 1st at 7:00 pm. Please register for this Zoom meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqcuCtqzstGtd82C2FNk7fLsVWlUdmKWBQ

If you attended the original webinar or watched the rebroadcast, you are invited to a meeting in which we hope to implement some of the suggestions that Professor Henning gave us. This meeting will be on Tuesday, July 6th at 7:00 pm at Metropolitan Community Church of the QC (2930 West Locust St in Davenport).

Please join us to continue this important work. If you have questions, contact PACG Office Manager Julie Ross.