Untold Human Stories and COVID-19

There Are Two Stories of Different Humans And How COVID-19 And Society Affects Them.

History:

A 15-year-old in Michigan was incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic after a judge ruled that not completing her schoolwork violated her probation. It had been a month since she had last seen her, when a judge found the girl had violated probation and sent her to the facility during the pandemic. The 15-year-old wasn’t in trouble for fighting with her mother or stealing, the issues that had gotten her placed on probation in the first place.

Juveline And Court:

A mental health worker told the judge that Grace would best be served by getting mental health and anger management treatment in a residential facility and the prosecutor agreed to this recommendation. The caseworker filed the violation without checking that she was fulfilling her academic requirements. Grace was given intense probation that also included completion of schoolwork. She had an IEP which allowed her additional time for assignments and tests and required teachers to check in with her to make sure that she understood the material. She struggled with the transition to online learning when her school discontinued in-person learning due to COVID-19. Her court appointed attorney however asked for her to remain home on probation due to the risk of COVID-19 in congregate facilities because she had not committed any new offenses. Although Grace was eventually transferred to a treatment facility, the reason for her detainment appeared to be related to systemic issues within the juvenile criminal justice system. And as you would expect, the transition was difficulty for him. He was often irritable and defiant, and loss motivation for learning because he missed his friends. But I also found this to be true with many other parents whose children didn’t have any difficulties.

But there is more work to be done.

1. Laws need to be expanded to other states.

2. Create more preventive and juvenile justice diversion programs

2. Create more preventive and juvenile justice diversion programs

History:

Sixteen-year-old William Haymon has spent more than 500 days in an adult jail in rural Lexington, Mississippi. There are no state rules governing how long a person can be incarcerated without being formally charged with a crime.

Haymon And Court:

He has been incarcerated without bail in the Holmes-Humphreys Regional Correctional Facility, an adult jail in rural Lexington, Mississippi, since February 2019. This delay, according to the local district attorney, Akillie Malone-Oliver, who prosecutes the state’s 21st judicial district, is primarily because of turnover in the city police department that is investigating the charges. While Malone-Oliver has defended Haymon’s imprisonment as a path to self-improvement, Blackmon has argued that Haymon is missing school—he would be starting the 10th grade in the fall—and will experience lasting harm from his incarceration as a child. Asked if she had considered the effects of incarceration on a child, she said, “I hope that he will be a better person. “The district attorney is the top law enforcement officer of the district,” said Blackmon of Malone-Oliver. Conversely, neighboring Louisiana has a 60-day deadline for prosecutors to win an indictment after a person is jailed on a felony charge. A database tracking lengths of stays in Mississippi jails shows that people in Holmes were incarcerated for an average of 417 days, according to data compiled in December 2019. Paloma Wu, deputy director of Impact Litigation at the Mississippi Center for Justice, told The Appeal that Haymon is “one of thousands” in the same situation. Blackmon is planning to file an appeal of the habeas decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court on the basis that Haymon is being unlawfully detained. Instead, she celebrated the last two years by putting money on his books so he could buy something from the canteen

They Are Still Pending

Thank You

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