Tell Congress: Don't Cut Funding for Children in the Justice System

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-congress-dont-cut-funding-for-children-in-the-justice-system?share_id=OyljwTagIf&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter via @change

An estimated 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the United States. African-American youth are nine times more likely to receive an adult prison sentence than white youth.

Congress is currently considering what type of funding state juvenile justice programs will receive--and many vital programs are on the chopping block. 

Insufficient funding will severely jeopardize, and in some states completely devastate, highly effective and proven delinquency prevention and community safety programs. A lack of funding will also cripple efforts to implement cost-effective alternatives to detention and incarceration, to reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and to keep children out of adult jails.

These programs need funding now more than ever to end the over-incarceration of young people of color in the justice system. 

Urge Congress to maintain funding for juvenile justice programs to keep children out of adult jails.