Ish-a-le's Testimony

Hi, my name is I-sha-le. I first entered into placement around 15. Placement did not help me, especially not with school. The placement that I went to did not have school. I did not know that I was supposed to have educational support in placement, so I did not ask about it. If I was never sent to placement, I would have graduated on time. While I was in juvenile placement, I experienced discrimination because I’m a LGBTQ youth. Discrimination and mistreatment in these facilities is a constant problem and one no person or child should ever have. Sometimes it happens because of our race, orientation, or sexuality and no one ever really knows, or is held accountable for what happens to us. What I would like to see change is more options for not placing youth- but real legislation and policies that divest from youth incarceration and a real investment in communities.

We need an Ombudsman office, because obviously, youths are not being cared for in these placements. Youth deserve care and respect. Adults should have been carefully going through childrens’ and youths’ complaints, and should be evaluating these places. How can you all look at these complaints, and cases and say to yourself, “oh, a youth reported that,” and then you just throw out or “unfound” these claims? That’s wrong and it doesn’t make any sense. You all need to be held accountable for what has happened to us in these facilities. You all should be doing your jobs, just like how you want everyone else to do their jobs. 

You all need to care more about investing money in the youth instead of the over $211,000 per kid it can cost in Pennsylvania to lock youth up.The same amount of money you all spend to incarcerate youth can be used to create many programs to keep youth off the street. Philly could have more physical activity programs, sports, like basketball, and recreational activities to keep youth off the street. Youth shouldnt have their only option to be to go to placement when they need help. Placement is not helpful. Placement did not help me at all, especially with school. I'm still not sure I ever got credits while in placement. I found out because when I got home, I was trying to get into a local community school and they couldn't locate any credits from the placement school I needed to transfer back to my community school. 

My experiences in placement and in foster care are why I think that our city should create an Ombudsman office in Philadelphia. If we had an office like this locally, a lot of youth from Philly in placement and in group homes might not be behind in their schooling, having to graduate after 19, 20 or older because they could report that they are not getting any education, or not getting the educational support they're supposed to get, and get help faster. It could help make sure youth can get the real help they need when they are returning back to their local school. This office could have also helped address when I was experiencing discrimination in placement from staff. It also just means alot to me to have an office like this locally and to know that someone is trying to help to make sure that youth have what they need when they need it.

Thank you. 

Banner photo credit - Emkay Lim via Unsplash