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Support Echo Glen residents, Alexis, Lola and Mary Ann in getting this important bill passed!  Link to simple form that automatically goes to your district’s legislators.

This YouTube video start with the testimony of 7 incarcerated young adults.  Four young men from Green Hill and Alexis, Lola & Mary Ann from Echo Glen.Each gives an amazingly eloquent presentations before the Senate Human Services Committee on the importance of passing SB 5981 which will allow sentence review before sending youth who commit crimes while under 18 years old to an adult prison.

Here’s a few of their highlights:

Mary Ann, now a resident at Echo Glen, shares that being a 16-year-old in an adult prison requires going into survival mode. No rehabilitation occurs. Thanks to senate bill 6160 juveniles are now allowed to serve their sentence in a juvenile rehabilitation center until they are 25 years old. She states she’s not sure what will happen if she has to go back to an adult prison.

Edgar’s words: (Without sb 5981) gang bangers know they are headed to an adult prison so there is no benefit to quitting banging. Nothing you learn in Juv. Rehab. gives you hope to get back with your family. In fact, quitting your gang in Juv. Rehab. will only make you a target by your own gang when you get to the adult prison. The only incentive is hope, hope to get back to your families…

Chris’s ending words: Hope is the mercy God gave to the world. It is through mercy God grants forgiveness. Forgiveness being the ability to give someone redemption after they have done wrong. If God grants chances to all of us after we have done wrong, we are asking the community to pass this bill as it is giving all youth offenders the same chance, a fair chance that they never had.

Statistics presented:
Almost 70% of black youth are born into single mother households.
Children raised in s a single mother household are:
·        5 times more likely to commit suicide.
·        9 times more likely to Drop out of HS
·        10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances.
·        20 times more likely to end up in prison.
Lola presented after sharing she has a year-old son: Children of incarcerated parents are 6 times more likely to become incarcerated.

Video begining with youth testimony  (Ladies presentations after the men’s)

Please send a comment supporting this bill to your legislator here: https://lnkd.in/gm55_Sza