Youth-LED Justice (YLJ) is committed to addressing the systemic and historical inequities in our society. In a truly equitable community, there would not be a need for a diversion program like ours. Until that day, we intend to push for equity in every way we can.
Youth-LED Justice is committing to take the following actions:
Increase racial equity in our program and in our community
Promote broader equity and access within our program
Increase racial equity in our program and in our community
- Increase BIPOC leadership on YLJ’s board of directors
- Increase BIPOC leadership among YLJ’s base of youth volunteers through intentional outreach
- Build relationships with Maine’s BIPOC communities to divert youth of color before they engage with the juvenile justice system
- Build relationships with Indigenous communities in our served regions to work toward mutually beneficial collaboration
- Provide interpretation services and translated documents to make YLJ’s diversion services accessible to youth and families of all national origins
Promote broader equity and access within our program
- Adapt our restorative process to each youth to meet their individual needs as best as possible. This includes accommodating youth based on ability, neurodivergence, and citizenship status.
- Reduce barriers to accessing our program:
- Provide hybrid model option continuing after the pandemic
- Provide childcare if it is needed for participation in restorative process
- Provide transportation support to respondents, participants in restorative processes, and youth volunteers who need it
- Continuing to assess where we are focusing our outreach efforts – specifically, offering our services and volunteer opportunities where they are most needed
- Work toward providing financial stipends for youth participating in our leadership programing
- Build relationships with schools and the community to receive more referrals prior to DOC involvement
- Acknowledge our mistakes and take accountability for them, ask for help, continue to learn from those we work with, and train with professionals to strengthen the service our volunteers and staff can provide
- Assess this list of actions yearly to meet community needs as they evolve
We believe that all young people experiencing adversity, conflict, and harm—especially those from historically disenfranchised communities—deserve to be valued, to be supported, and to continue to grow . In addition to racial inequity, we also wish to acknowledge deep inequities in our society and justice system around gender identity, sexuality, religion, ability, neurodivergence, mental health, age, citizenship status, socioeconomic status, and education level.
While inequities along lines of race can sometimes go unspoken in Maine, America’s whitest state, it is all the more important to address them. The acknowledgement that our justice system was not created to treat everyone equally is at the very center of YLJ’s diversion work. We work alongside a problematic system with the hope of reducing the harm that it creates. Today, Disproportionate Minority Contact with the juvenile justice system is present in 83% of the Maine counties in which it is measured.
It is important to acknowledge historical injustices that have created the current circumstances of inequity. Without a historical perspective, the issues of the present may be written off as isolated, insignificant, or passing. Our society’s current state of inequity is rooted in centuries of systemic discrimination, criminalization, enslavement, and genocide. These hateful practices and their legacies live on in the United States today, including that of Maine.
We acknowledge that cultural genocide and the stealing of Indigenous land by white settlers is how Maine, as it is called today, was created. The Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy tribes, collectively known as the Wabanaki, have lived on this land extending back to time immemorial. YLJ honors the Wabanaki peoples, their ancestors, stories, and traditional knowledge—including circle practices. YLJ acknowledges that our own restorative work is an appropriation of these practices.
Understanding the full extent of these present inequities and historical injustices is an ongoing process. This statement is a living, growing document. We at YLJ are committed to listening, learning, and aligning our actions with the voiced needs of our BIPOC communities. Our work teaches us that it is important to continue forward through conflict and discomfort in order to bridge divides and repair harm. We pledge to grow and adapt as our knowledge of issues of equity evolves.
We believe that all young people experiencing adversity, conflict, and harm—especially those from historically disenfranchised communities—deserve to be valued, to be supported, and to continue to grow . In addition to racial inequity, we also wish to acknowledge deep inequities in our society and justice system around gender identity, sexuality, religion, ability, neurodivergence, mental health, age, citizenship status, socioeconomic status, and education level.
While inequities along lines of race can sometimes go unspoken in Maine, America’s whitest state, it is all the more important to address them. The acknowledgement that our justice system was not created to treat everyone equally is at the very center of YLJ’s diversion work. We work alongside a problematic system with the hope of reducing the harm that it creates. Today, Disproportionate Minority Contact with the juvenile justice system is present in 83% of the Maine counties in which it is measured.
It is important to acknowledge historical injustices that have created the current circumstances of inequity. Without a historical perspective, the issues of the present may be written off as isolated, insignificant, or passing. Our society’s current state of inequity is rooted in centuries of systemic discrimination, criminalization, enslavement, and genocide. These hateful practices and their legacies live on in the United States today, including that of Maine.
We acknowledge that cultural genocide and the stealing of Indigenous land by white settlers is how Maine, as it is called today, was created. The Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy tribes, collectively known as the Wabanaki, have lived on this land extending back to time immemorial. YLJ honors the Wabanaki peoples, their ancestors, stories, and traditional knowledge—including circle practices. YLJ acknowledges that our own restorative work is an appropriation of these practices.
Understanding the full extent of these present inequities and historical injustices is an ongoing process. This statement is a living, growing document. We at YLJ are committed to listening, learning, and aligning our actions with the voiced needs of our BIPOC communities. Our work teaches us that it is important to continue forward through conflict and discomfort in order to bridge divides and repair harm. We pledge to grow and adapt as our knowledge of issues of equity evolves.
*The following reports shed light on the realities for youth of color in the justice and education systems:
Local:
Dumont, R., King, E., & Shaler, G. (2015). Disproportionate Contact: Youth of Color in Maine's Juvenile Justice System. Portland, ME: University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Service.
- Disproportionate Minority Contact is present in 5 of the 6 counties in which it can be measured (Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Kennebec, and York) (p6).
- Youth of color in both Androscoggin and Cumberland counties are committed to secure facilities at twice the rate of white youth (p6).
- African American youth are diverted at only slightly more than half the rate of white youth in Cumberland County and they are diverted at less than half the rate of their white peers Androscoggin County (p6).
- Youth of color are more likely than white youth to be detained for technical offenses while on conditional release and more likely to be detained for bench warrants (p7).
National:
U.S. Education Department, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (2021). An Overview of Exclusionary Discipline Practices in Public Schools for the 2017-18 School Year.
- African American students are expelled, suspended, and arrested at school or during school-related activities at rates over twice that proportional to their total student enrollment (p12, p16, p21).
- African American students are referred to law enforcement at a rate 90% greater than their share of total enrollment (p21).
- Delinquency cases involving white youth are less likely to be handled formally (48%) than those involving African American youth (60%), American Indian youth (56%), Hispanic youth (52%), or Asian youth (52%) (p58)