They Were Impacted by Incarceration as Teens. Now These Young Women Are Fighting for Change.
Photo by Naomieh Jovin for Essence.
“YES, SOME KIDS MAKE MISTAKES IN LIFE BUT WE ARE NOT OUR MISTAKES. THEY DO NOT DEFINE US,” YOUTH LEADER NYKIA WATKINS TOLD ESSENCE.
Nykia Watkins was 15-years-old when she was sentenced to two years in prison at the Juvenile Correctional Complex in Topeka, Kansas. “Being incarcerated was so traumatic. I was one of those kids who sat in jail and had staff point fingers in my face…I’ve been one of those kids that [was] strip searched. Those kinds of things are dehumanizing,” she said.
Once she was released, Watkins says just meeting the needs of day-to-day life was difficult due to a lack of support resources like counseling, adequate housing, transportation, and food.
“Those things you experience make you never want to set foot back in jail. But somehow because of the way the system is created, you do set foot back in jail,” she told ESSENCE, calling America’s juvenile justice system a “rotation of unsuccess” that’s in need of reform.
Read the full article here and hear from one of youth advocates, Briannah Stoves.