>> we will leave it here to go live to a discussion on youth sentencing reform with liz ryan, focusing on a decline in youth crime. this is live coverage on c-span. >> this discussion is important. you will your from the smartest people i know, partners in our work and they are each facing their own challenges in reforming our deeply flawed you justice system. and is a hopeful system. you all know we are joined by our friend liz ryan, the administrator of the office of juvenile justice and prevention, we have not only an expert in this but someone who cares deeply about all of our kids. i regularly talk to people, advocates, legislators, public defenders, reporters, who repeat the same story about the fear of crime, specifically youth crime influencing the prospect of reform. it is tough out there. it is always tough but things feel different right now. we are going to be joined by my colleagues at the sentencing project, senior research fellow dave mantell who will -- mandel who will share some statistics. we will have a roundtable with alisha sto, director of policy and advocacy at the texas center of justice and equality. the leading youth organizer for the self empowerment project, and the director of government relations to the office of the maryland public defender. we wonder, are we facing a return to the 1990's when a fear about the generation of so-called super predators sent more kids to adult courts, jails, prisons, and caused spikes in incarceration in the youth justice system as well. do we learn from those mistakes? and they were definitely mistakes. we would love time for questions so please use the q&a but not the bottom of your screen. this is being recorded. we will share it along with resources we will discuss today. before that, i am pleased to bring on liz ryan, and let me tell you about her. she joined as an administrator on may 16, appointed by president biden. she brings more than 30 years of experience on these issues including more than two decades on -- as an advocate for juvenile justice reform. for joining our organization, she served as founding president and ceo of a campaign to end the incarceration of youth by investing in alternatives. since 2014, the initiative has faced a closure and we have directed more than $50 million to community-based alternatives to incarceration. administrator ryan served as president and ceo since 2014 -- until 2014. the campaign sought to end the prosecution of youth in criminal court and the placement in jails and prisons. her tenure contributed to legislative and policy changes in more than 30 states, as 60% increase in youths placed in adult jails and prisons. there is also the campaign to reauthorize the juvenile justice and prevention act. she serves as advocacy director for the youth law initiative, feel director of juvenile court initiative and an advocate for the children's events fund. she has written extensively about juvenile justice reform, including a chapter of a book and you can see why we are excited to have her. she has a bachelors degree from dickinson college and a masters degree from george washington university, where i also went to school. we have that in common. i think i will have nick, alisha, andre, if you could turn off your cameras, i will do the same and i will load your slides, liz so you can present on them. liz: thank you, josh. good afternoon. it is my pleasure to join you on today's webinar on youth crime and juvenile justice reform. for over three decades, the sentencing project has worked to end the nation's overreliance on incarceration and promote systemic criminal and juvenile justice reform. the center has done tireless work on this and i'm pleased to join you today. i want to think that sentencing project staff to their -- for their commitment to this work and for convening such a timely conversation and inviting me to be part of it. prior to my appointment as the administrator, i was a juvenile justice reform advocate for nearly 25 years and i have been fortunate enough to work with so many dedicated visionaries in the field who singler killer -- singular role is to transform the juvenile justice system into a more develop mentally put appropriate -- developmentally appropriate system. we have collectively achieved reducing the use of incarceration, changes in state laws in many states so that many fewer young people are prosecuted in adult criminal court or held in adult jails and prisons, and we have worked together to successfully reauthorize the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act, strengthening its core protections for children. but more work needs to be done. i know firsthand how critical the court is to the success of this work and i pledge as the administrator to continue our collaboration and partnership. next slide, please. we provide national leadership and resources including training, technical assistance, research and funding states, territories, tribes and communities so they can better protect children, prevent delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system. there are three priorities that guide our work and those are treating children as children, and this includes keeping kids out of adult jails, adult courts and adult prisons, and taking a more develop mentally appropriate approach. we know also that we should be serving children at home with their families and in their communities and shifting away from incarceration. our third priority is really opening up opportunities for young peoples to have contact with the juvenile justice system so they have the same chance of success as any other young person. at the heart of these priorities is a commitment to racial equity and fairness, and a promise to partner with impacted students and families to listen to young people and family members and act on what they tell us works and does not work. we unreservedly support juvenile justice reform because it is the right thing to do. we have all seen shocking headlines, reports of long isolations of young people, use of force tactics, lawsuits filed by hundreds of former residents alleging abuse in multiple states. in some instances, death of children in custody. these unfortunately are only a few examples of the harm our young people experience in detention and prisons. data, research and experience proves it is possible to hold young people accountable for their missteps and have them a second chance at better outcomes. to do that, we have to reduce the use of detention and incarceration and implement much more community-based alternatives on an more extensive basis. if we want to support the well-being of our young people, their families and communities. highly publicized incidents of violence including mass shootings, carjackings have contributed to the public perception that there is an uptick in youth crime. some communities are seeking to reverse long-standing bipartisan juvenile justice reforms. a few states are considering lowering the age of criminal responsibility and implementing harsher punishments for young people, such as placing young people under the custody of the juvenile justice system in adult prisons, for example. we are aware of and concerned about reports that some communities may be experiencing an increase in some crimes among a few young people. but the latest available data, national data, tells a different story about violent offenses committed by young people under 18. violent offenses by youth under the age of 18 have radically declined between 1995 and 2020 according to data we released earlier this week. next slide. thank you. here is a chart. overall arrest of young people went down. law enforcement agencies made an estimated 424,300 arrests of youth in 2020, a 38% drop from the previous year and half the number from five years earlier. fewer than one in 10 of those arrests were for a violent offense. next slide. the proportion of arrests involving youth for violent offenses have declined over the last decade for each category, dropping by half from 2010, when youth accounted for 14% of all violent crime arrests. we will hear from another member shortly about the reduce violence during the pandemic and their conclusion based on available data that youth violence has been flat or declining for years. we will examine white misinformation about trends and youth crimes processed and -- persist and discuss ways to combat that. children deserve a chance to grow up free from violence, stay out of the juvenile justice system and turn their lives around following involvement in the juvenile justice system. i hope information shared today will dispel some of the misconceptions about crime and scare policymakers and practitioners away from implanting measures that would harm the communities and young people they are seeking to protect. you can turn to the last slide. here are ways you can connect with us following the webinar. back to you, josh. josh: apparently i was muted. i want to turn to you and see if you are ready to present as well. i apologize for the technical difficulties on my part. let me load up your slides. and start your presentation. there you go. >> thanks, josh. and thank you all for attending today, for your concern about the troubling narrative taking hold of the media about young people and crime. we have seen the narrative that youth violence exploded during the pandemic, and that it is a threat to public safety. we are seeing lengthy stories about carjackings on social media like the new times, ox news. they tell us more stories, a title wave of coverage on local newspapers and local tv news, preventing -- presenting youth crime as a danger to all of our public safety. they lacked data that supports this narrative, or it cherry picks, lacking the context. they have inherited the talking points that law enforcement leaders or other public officials with a vested interest are promoting this crimes bike narrative. it makes it more difficult for youth to win support for long overdue changes and emerging understanding of this of element and whether it promotes success. that is why we decided to take a deep dive and we have a few minutes here describing what we have learned. from the information available, there is no evidence that u.s. has experienced more youth crime since the pandemic. most evidence suggests it has been flat or declining. from 2000 to 2019, crimes committed by youth fell by more than a half. you can see it here, 15% to 7%. we know this trend continued into 2020 and youth under 18 accounted for just 6% of total arrests in 2020, and they continue to decline in every category, contradicting the narrative that has been saturating our media. we know since 1994, the youth arrest rates for serious violent offenses plummeted by 79%, more than it for any other age cohort. the arrest for serious violent crimes have fallen for all of the age group cc here, but most for young people. in the first year of the pandemic and the last year for which national data are available, young people share of crime continues to decline in nearly every category. prior to the pandemic, the total number of crimes by youth declined in 2020. the two categories with the most attention, including carjacking, evidence is limited. there has been a spike in carjackings in many cities and youth have been a disproportionate number of these. but they are just a small percentage of cases, so we should not assume that a percentage of these are youth. we don't know whether carjackings went up or down in 2020, but we do know that robberies by youth, of which carjackings are subcategories, declined in 2020. there is little evidence that he was played a leading part in the sizable increase in carjackings in 2020. the national instant -- incident-based reporting system saw it decreased in 2020. it has declined to the point where youth under 18 were just 7% of homicide arrests in 2020, only about one and 13. of course all of these data to because only through 2020. there is a chance that it did increase in 2021 or is increasing this year, but if it turned out to be true, it would not be a reason to scale back recent reforms and youth justice or promote policies. arise during the pandemic would not be surprising given the trauma and disruption young people have experience. the u.s. surgeon general last year declared a crisis of mental health. that would not be solved with harsher punishments in the court system. there is no overwhelming evidence that harsher punishments in the justice system or any involvement at all in the justice system is counterproductive. heavy reliance on detention and confinement, the routine misbehavior in schools or anywhere that heightens to liquids he worsens youth outcomes and jeopardizes public safety. what does work? we need carefully measured evidence informed interventions and we need to make targeted investments in young people's healthy development and the well-being of their families, schools and communities. specifically, the evidence shows it is more effective to hire counselors then police officers our nation's schools and to address these behaviors through mental health treatment rather than arrest. this will go to -- it is better to do this in diversion programs than in court. it is better to eat them at home then placing them in much detention schools. it is more effective to provide to bellman opportunities and evidence-based, including you who have committed serious offenses. for those who must be prosecuted , it is more effective to prosecute all cases in juvenile courts rather than punishing some as if they are adults. they are not. justice systems across the country remained steady toward most of these goals over the past two decades. we cannot let this sensationalize reporting distract from decades of research on what actually helps kids and communities thrive. without i will pass this all back to josh. josh: thank you so much, did. i appreciate the -- did. -- dick. i appreciate the research here. andre, alicia and krystal, can i ask you to come back on screen? thank you so much. from here, i'm going to ask some questions of the three of you. can i ask you to each introduce yourselves, starting with andre? andre, i think you are muted. crystal and alicia, i can see you are, two. -- too. andre, if you could unmute yourself and crystal, why don't you introduce yourself. crystal: good afternoon. crystal williams, i'm with the office of the public defender in maryland, i serve as the director of government relations but i previously have worked throughout the division and office, mostly with juveniles. i served since 2011 in our juvenile division and i recently worked in our youth defendant unit, especial position dedicated to making sure that youth who are charged as adults have the opportunity to have their case transfer back down to juvenile court. my background with the office is primarily serving as a representative for juveniles in the system. josh: great. andre, then alicia. >> i am andre sims, i may lead youth organizer for the youth art project and a lead organizer for another campaign, and the founder of the nonprofit organization. we have young people who do work and we are involved in a justice program. we are committed to helping people impacted and we are led by young people who have been impacted by these systems. >> thank you come, mina ms. alicia castillo, my pronouns are she and her, and i'm director of policy at the texas center for justice and equity. we work on any mass incarceration through the lens of social and racial justice. i also serve on the board of equity action, a local group in austin, texas with transformation in austin. happy to be here today. josh: thank you. let me ask a question about how your experiences and form advocacy and your work. andre, would you like to go first? andre: sure. my experience is a little different. i was actually incarcerated at age 17 and served eight years. through my process i worked for an organization of community partners, i have worked with barb in the public safety on the project and the program and those that were not mandated by the state. these were committee partners that came in to help us and empower our leadership. so i worked with them while i was incarcerated inserted being part of the solution instead of the problem. a little over a year ago, i started working to advocate to end youth incarceration. i want to give a platform to people who don't have that opportunity. it has been especially effective and i have been -- we are often excluded from these conversations and it is hard to find solutions for people we are not talking to or who were not invited. that is my experience. josh: thank you. that organization you mention for pennsylvania reform, carenotcontrol.com. crystal: thank you. my background comes from following organizations like the sentencing project who put out amazing data and statistics and information that has helped inform the public and students. when i was in college and underground, this was incredibly helpful information to help inform me in terms of what the landscape was across the country in terms of racial disparities and the impact of mass incarceration. i also followed the work of liz ryan, who has been phenomenal with the work she has done prior to her current position. i encourage folks to really look to those organizations that look to the data out there to be informed. my background and my work as a public defender, i come from a perspective that i do identify with a lot of the clients i represent, whether that is coming from a background of individuals who struggle financially within their families, who have had parents who have been incarcerated, who have had family members killed through gun violence, these are all things nobody should have to experience, but a majority of people who are impacted by the criminal justice system unfortunately deal with serious issues. very few people have a personal perspective and understanding and willingness to have compassion and understanding of how we need to overcome life's hurdles in order for individuals to have the opportunity to thrive. as an individual who has grown up in a predominantly white community, i have seen the disparities of how black males, i have a twin brother, i also -- often share the stories that i see a distinct way how my brother has been treated by society in terms of opportunities presented to him versus myself, so i feel a duty to make sure that young black men are given that same forays and opportunity, that same encouragement and believe that their lives can change. there are opportunities for them but they just need to be exposed to them. and to people who believe in them and can help push them forward. i think it is important that these experiences play a role in how advocate and how i continue to represent individuals who need a voice. >> thanks. alicia. alicia: prior to my work in policy and advocacy, i was a teacher and i worked primarily with students with learning disabilities. i saw how the way the schools present this affects the youth and how those kids are excluded and underserved and penalized in our education system and can end up in the criminal punishment system later on down the line. but also i am the granddaughter of immigrants, a first-generation college graduate, a current survivor and most recently a mom to two boys and i can also identify with a lot of the folks that we represent here in texas. josh: i am thankful to have each of you tell your stories. it matters a great deal. we started with the data, but the fact that we can -- but the facts can only get us so far and people all have individual stories to share. it is part of what makes effective advocacy. a question i want to ask the three of you, we know this work is always hard. i'm curious how you are finding in an election year, the moment it does seem from media reports and no shortage of anecdotes that people are sort of freaking out about youth crime in spite of the fact that we saw. what is the atmosphere like in your state? i will start with you in texas, alicia. alicia: you're right. it is always hard. but i will say it has been devastatingly challenging in recent days. in the past there was always at least an open door to a conversation about improving the experiences and outcomes of kids who are caught up in the punishment system, but during a particularly divisive election year, i am finding that those who probably would have defaulted to a sympathetic position on issues are either trying to out tough on crime their opponents or staying silent on matters because they are afraid of how they will be perceived. it is certainly challenging and demoralizing. josh: andre. i know you have been in the state capital quite a lot. andre: i would love to talk about pennsylvania. we can see here the explosion. we have even backpedaled on a lot of policies that people used to get elected. whether it is the media, legislators being reactive in their language and regressing back to this stage of being tough on crime, i'm concerned with the conversations and rectory -- rhetoric we are hearing. i have been in situations where we decided to hold a young person on charges because of what is going on. we see this every day. police are not reporting data. there are only getting part of the story and we are seeing this right now. it is extremely concerning. crystal: i agree. we have to start having those difficult conversations about race and understanding how race and implicit bias lays into media, how media coverage is pretrade but also how we are receiving that information and responding to it. this is a good platform for individuals to do the research, understand the statistics behind all of the fear mongering. it simply is not fair. we are in a time where we need to move away from all of the history of policies that have done so much damage to communities, so much damage to young black men. plain and simple, we have to change the way we view and see young black men in our country. we have to stop criminalizing and dehumanizing them, and we have to take active steps in making sure that our elected officials are not taking that chart taking those active steps and are standing against the tide. i do think our elected officials have the capacity, but we have to give them that the confidence that the data is there and they can make the right decision, we have to stop with the tough on crime notion. it's an plea does not work, we need to do some things differently. josh: one thing i find so interesting is that the part of this conversation that has bugged me is that i'm not convinced motors are expressing a fear of crime at the ballot box in the way that media and politicians seem to be responding and the way that a few of you have talked about, some elections have been bad for prosecutors but one of those had a low recall election in san francisco, with so few people voting. and new york city elected a tough on crime mayor who is now so unpopular that he may as well pitch for the red sox. they hate that guy there. i also see polls that say a lot of people consider crime and serious issue. people always consider crime to be a serious issue. the context is how you would compare them to five years ago or three years ago. i think the data suggests the polling data -- the polling data, that is, that always think crime is a serious issue. we find ourselves in this atmosphere where i think our challenge as elected officials and the media, to a greater extent than the public. and we should feel some confidence as we view this work. i will ask one more question and then bring liz back on. we have not had a chance to talk about the reforms each of you are working on. let me go in reverse order, so crystal, andre and alisha to talk about the bills you are hoping to see past or recently saw passed in your state. >> we have made some incredible progress in maryland. maryland has traditionally been ranked as one of the worst states in the country in terms of how it treats children in the criminal justice system. we have a very low bar to overcome in terms of the thing we need to accomplish. that being said, last year i felt like we made some significant changes in the law in terms of the juvenile justice system. one of them being changing the age in which juveniles are being charged and prosecuted in juvenile court. previously there was no age barrier, i have represented kids as young as seven years old. it is shocking to your conscience to have to represent a seven-year-old who does not understand what a judge or attorney is, whose feet don't hit the ground sitting in a chair. we have to have this paradigm shift of what these laws are doing to our communities and our children when we are prosecuting at criminalizing them at such a young age. that is a huge change we have done in maryland and i hope other states follow. another thing the juvenile justice reform bill does is it makes sure that individuals with low level offenses are not being incarcerated for those offenses, tactical violations, and making sure there are additional opportunities for diversion and expanding those opportunities for the court to utilize them. one of the other significant bills we were able to pass was the child interrogation protection act. that in particular is a powerful bill because it makes sure that children are allowed to have the conversation with an attorney prior to being interrogated by police. so many police officers use deceptive and intimidating interrogation tactics and they don't really enjoy the children understand what their miranda rights are and with the applications are in terms of speaking with police. so this helps make sure that children understand with their rights are and their parents are notified if an interrogation is taking place. these are significant bills we have passed, but we have a long ways to go. one of the next things we will be working on is making sure children are not charged automatically in the adult system. in maryland, 33 offenses have a child automatically charged in the adult system and horrific things happen to children when they are prosecuted as adults. i have experienced that in representing these individuals so i hope we can move forward and eliminate that practice. josh: crystal brought up something interesting about kids being charged as adults in maryland, that maryland is about as aggressive as any other state, it is second only to florida in count and rate, second only to alabama. people think of maryland as a blue state that there is no shortage of challenges wherever you live, things can be reformed for the better. andre, tell me about what you are working on in pennsylvania. >> it is interesting right now. we're -- to give you a background, a lot of the scandals that were exposed in the juvenile justice field, these are some things -- we have invested and come up with recommendations for how we should reform the juvenile justice system. it was about a year or so, we came up with 35 recommendations and there could have been more, but we were happy with the ones that came out. unfortunately, some of the other recommendations are very surface level. they don't do enough to really solve this issue. and one of the bills we are happy about that has been introduced as one that ends -- she talked about charging youth automatically as adults based on the offense. we have opportunities about this practice and we are still dragging our feet. there has been a lot of pushback . it is important that we honor the experiences of young people who are victims to these. there was something in delaware county that was shut down. i am excited about this, personally, a senator has done an amazing job of getting young people's perspective and as b12 40 is one we are very excited about. and as a -- as the 1230, we are excited about that as well. there has been progress made, we have more work to do is what i will end with. alisha: as andre mentioned, i think anywhere we see youth prisons, we see scandal because cajun a child is antithetical -- caging a child is antithetical toward rehabilitation. we are working on things like age, parole eligibility for people who work sentenced to extreme sentences in their youth, but ultimately we are working on responsibility closure. there has been success in decriminalizing children and incarceration in dutch predicated by a commitment to actually close youth prisons. i believe no child should be in a cage. and until we get to that point, continually working on policies that promote the decriminalization of children, that expand access to resources the children and their families need to thrive, those are things we will be promoting in texas. josh: thanks so much. i will have liz come back to join the last 20 minutes or so that we have. thank you, liz. and remind everyone that you can send your questions you had a. -- q&a. the chat has been very busy, but questions for the panel should go in the q&a and we will do our best to get to the questions as we can. many of you asked if it will be recorded, it will be and we will share it by email in a week or so along with some of the resources we talked about today. but for linens, we went over your bio, the organization you led, founded for that matter. your office is now producing the data we all lie on, and supporting work -- rely on, and work -- supporting the work that we do. i'm curious how your experience from before prepare you for making change from the inside. liz: that is a great question, but let me share some takeaways from this conversation and from looking at that data. these trends in youth crime between 1995 and 2020, the last year for which we have the national data, these trends are very encouraging. efforts to print and address the liquid behavior has made a measurable impact. as we hear about anecdotal, perceived or real spikes in youth crime, it does not justify rolling back all of the advances in juvenile justice reform. that is because regressive juvenile justice policies have a predictably detrimental effect on young people and their families, and communities in the long-term. we also know that they exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities. when i started working, we had the priorities that we need to treat children as children, serve children at home with their families and communities, and open up opportunities for young people involved in the justice system and the research backs us up in this. some takeaways for me in this conversation are that to help counter the narrative of a youth led crime wave, it is important that we look at the data, we put these incidents in context and we highlight all of the programs and policies that have kept young people out of the juvenile justice system. that is where we should be investing our time and resources. josh: thanks. i'm hoping that we have convinced our audience that we have the facts on our side, that youth offenders have declined, there is no youth led crime wave. i'm curious to hear from all of you about the limits of data and advocacy -- in advocacy i should say, and what other tools are at our disposal. what works when you are meeting with a legislator? would you like to go first, alycia? alycia: sure. i think it has to be person first and it is important to validate fears. everyone wants to feel safe in their communities and home. the issue here is that we have equated safety with something that produces more crime, by caging people. in order to shift the narrative on what really is public safety, we have to start asking that question. what does make you feel safe? oftentimes we won't find that it is more police on the street corner or more cages in their neighborhoods. it ends up being things like access to health care, things like ensuring that my loved one who is experiencing an mental health crisis has somewhere they can go and re-stabilize. those are the types of things, housing just came in the chat, absolutely. so many things, basic needs that human beings have that are currently not being addressed. while we continue to spend and pour billions of dollars into our criminal punishment system. so it is important as we are talking just to start to talk past the typical things that we know have already failed us in terms of producing more public safety and begin to listen to what folks are really asking for. josh: it is true. andre. andre: i feel there is a lack of knowledge and it is extremely hard to get current data if we need it. because a lot is happening right now and it takes time to do research and collect data. but i also see it works very well, because you learn how to punch numbers and you can study, but you can't go to school to learn what it is like to be inside solitary confinement for a prolonged period of time. you don't get that type of knowledge going to college. i think it is important that legislator -- legislators take time to sit down with everyone who has gone through this process. i have seen firsthand, sometimes i feel uncomfortable answering questions but i do because it is important. from the perspective of people who have been through these types of experiences, it is hard to talk about it but it is so important to talk about. i have had conversations about rehabilitation and when you're focused on survival, you don't have time to focus on relocation. you don't have time to focus on this because you are focused on survival and living to the next day. especially as a young person, i saw somebody say -- imagine what you have been going through. we see an emotional response and it is important to combat that. we don't know the type of trauma -- to deal with this tough on crime rhetoric. lastly what i found is that a lot of people don't know the impact on a young person. there is a preconception that it is helpful, but statistics show is the opposite. it is important that we tell our stories to anybody that has a story, especially young persons. you can reach out and your voice heard. josh: crystal? crystal: andre, i appreciated talking about that in terms of making sure people understand the harsh realities of what happens when we have these horrific policies in place, in terms of what it means for children and youth, their families, their communities. so many times when i have spoken with legislators or people in the community, individuals i have represented and their families, folks don't understand some of the unspoken truths about what happens to kids and youth in the criminal justice system. everything from a child being strip-searched by adult correctional facility members when they are charged as an adult. you have children who maybe have prior trauma, maybe they have. sexual abuse or physical abuse by an adult and they are placed in these facilities where they are in a state of trying to survive, but they are also being re-traumatized and exposed to an environment that is creating a mindset where they have to defend themselves and put up that armor. we have to think about what we are doing to the children when we are criminalizing them, incarcerating them, prosecuting them. i think when we traveled, we were saying they used this with each other -- and says -- it is a greeting that says how are the children? we have to ask ourselves every day, how are the children? it is something we always need to be asking ourselves. we look at the data and the truth, the stories, the anecdotes of what is really happening in our communities, what is really happening in these jail systems, what is really happening behind the wall , most people, if not all people, would be truly horrified and would want to do something and want to act. i encourage you to reach out and talk to folks like andrea -- andre who have experienced it and to folks who are actively involved in activities trying to help change these policies and these things taking place throughout our country. i would also say get involved with your local legislatures. testified. be the voice of your community to help explain what is going on. if you are an individual who has been impacted by the system or you have a loved one who has been impacted, share those stories because people want to hear them. they matter and they are important. we often don't talk about this, the actual impact and damage being done to our community. josh: do you have any response to these ideas you have just heard? liz: i want to echo some of what krystal just said and that is listening to what young people are saying about the justice system. and i want to thank andre so much for sharing your expertise and experience with everyone today. that is what we all should be doing. our justice system needs to listen more to what young people recommend we do to help them grow and thrive. we have held listening sessions all summer with people, family members and other stakeholders in the justice system and that is the bottom line. if we are going to do the right thing here, we need to start by listening to what young people say works. because they are the closest to the issue and they know what the solutions are. so that is what we are doing here, looking at what young people will say will work and investing in that. josh: thank you so much. we are coming toward the end of the hour and i'm getting to some of the questions, blending together things people were sending to us. i would be curious to hear how people think we can respond to media bias, and effective way to do that. i know i'm effective on twitter, writing back to reporters i don't like and letters to the editor. i'm curious what tactics other people on the panel have done to call this out when they see it. alicia, why don't you start? alycia: sure. there is actually a report on media bias in texas and in houston more specifically. we have a deep analysis to find that it is a big problem. we realize if it bleeds, it leaves. -- if it bleeds, it leads and there is a tendency to promote this to get clicks. but we find that the media because be an effective tool when it comes to accurate portrayals of what is going on in the justice system. the texas juvenile justice department is under investigation by the doj and is experiencing a number of special children -- a number of children are experiencing crisis right now. we found some recent reports that cannot from the texas tribune that highlighted this devastating detail of what is going on inside those walls. that is something that really brought the public together to care about the issue as well. if we can speak with our media representatives and let them know we want to hear the truth and we want to hear what is really going on in our communities, i think we will find that it is what the public wants to see. josh: andre, krystal, anything to add? andre: i would add that what we do with care not control is build relationships with reporters because a lot of the times the bias comes from not talking to the other side to get their perspective. we try to balance a proactive reactive approach. on the one hand, we try to build those relationships and let them know that young people -- there is not hysteria over this. we work with a lot of people who are doing amazing things in the community. so we are building relationships and having those platforms is important. and there have been interviews, opposites -- op eds. a lot of our youth program have put out their experience and giving platforms to what is going on. also just taking every opportunity that we can to address young voices on their platform, because again, we're all called -- it is a program where we can get local artists to make socially responsible music and we don't want them to talk about shooting or something negative in the neighborhood and like she said, if it bleeds it leads. we as a community and we need to push back on that. we need to teach people how to interact with media and how to be critical. krystal: i think these are all excellent points and i would just add that we have to challenge ourselves in the information we are receiving, and making sure we are understanding motive or incentives behind information being given to us, how it is being given to us. we have to be aware of how information is being provided through the news and be reminded that there is a huge financial incentive for incarceration, for prisons, for certain policies to be in place. so we have to question, what are the motives behind continuing rhetoric that we know does not work? we have to educate ourselves, look to multiple resources, don't just rely on one opinionated version of what is in the media. go and do the research, educate yourself, ask yourself the questions to make sure that you understand the true scope and picture of what is being provided in the media. one thing i have noted over the past couple of years, we have been inundated with so many types of media and different perspectives, but i think it is up to us as individuals to make sure we are educating ourselves and taking the extra step to broaden our scope of media attention. understanding how it is being given to us. josh: i would like to ask about an effective conversation with the media. what is it you find helpful? >> a couple of things. i want to lay down some of the resources that we have, there's a website, the report we released this week and you can get it online. we have reports like this that we did with our colleagues at the national institute of justice, a lot of data collected through the national center for juvenile justice, tremendous resources for the field and i find that giving this kind of information to reporters can be very helpful. we also have information about effective programs, we have a guide and we put out a regular email. we also have one other source that is helpful to reporters, to hear from young people. one of the sources for media, we need to broaden the information they are getting and when -- i think the public actually trusts young people more than anyone else in terms of what is happening with the justice system based on available polling. that is important to widen the sources of information, having and sometimes that's more than just a phone call after a reporter is done with the story, it means going and sitting down with that reporter and talking with them and so that students who are doing more and more stories can actually learn about what's going on. i want to make sure you're aware of this resource that we want to provide information to other stakeholders and that you will contact us to see if we can help you in that regard. >> i just want to say how grateful i am to the audience and i'm sorry it is just impossible to get to all these questions. if you get in contact with us at the sentencing project, i will be happy to refer you to people in different states. we also have some research coming out just next week about the report about diversion from juvenile court. solutions and alternatives, and we like to provide that as well. that will be next week. this conversation is one that should be ongoing and hope you will have them in your communities as well and that you will be in touch with the sentencing project. you can google as well as i can, but the other organizations that are here are also accessible. we also welcome your donations to do this work, in the nonprofit sector we certainly need your help and support in all the ways you can offer it. so thank you all, thank you to our panelists, and thank you to our audience. i appreciate it. >> we now join a conversation on the impact of the courts on u.s. immigration policy. it's hosted by the bipartisan policy center, live coverage here on c-span. >> president trump en travel bans and ending dhaka and president biden. just yesterday the biden administration issued a final role to fortify the daca program against current legislation. the state of texas which is certain -- currently suing the government over the legality of the program. those of us who have been in the immigration policy world for a while found the new generation of litigation ff

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Maryland , Pennsylvania , Alabama , Texas , Dhaka , Bangladesh , Josh , Liz Ryan , Galicia , Preston Cooper , Andre , Andre Sims , Alicia Castillo ,