MACON, Ga. (AP) - William Lewis joined a gang in Clayton County when he was in high school.
In his sophomore year, he and other gang members were involved in a fight that left one person with a broken jaw. As a result, Lewis and some of his friends faced multiple years in prison.
Back then, Lewis was given an alternative that some students in Bibb County are being given today - a second chance.
In 2018, the Macon District Attorney’s Office and Bibb County School District adopted the 14-year-old program model used by Clayton County that had helped Lewis.
The School-Justice Partnership program here offers students, who commit minor offenses, an alternative to getting suspended, expelled or arrested. They are instead referred to services in the community, such as counseling, mediation, tutoring and community workshops.
The partnership works with other community agencies including the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice and the Macon-Bibb Public Defender’s Office.
As the DA’s office decided to replicate the program in Peach County this year, the partners also touted early success in the first year of the Bibb County program and are already planning how to build on that success.
During the 2018 school year, 207 students were notified they had committed an offense such as fighting or possession of small amounts of marijuana that made them eligible for the program.
Of those who entered the program, only 10 students re-offended, according to David Cooke, district attorney for the Macon Judicial Circuit.
Out of the 120 students who were referred to services, such as counseling or tutoring, 65 completed or initiated services by May 31, according to the 2018-19 End of the Year Summary report.
“We’re building strong kids instead of depending upon the criminal justice system to fix broken adults,” Cooke said.
‘HOW IT STARTED IN BIBB COUNTY’
Cooke said when he first took office, he knew they needed to find a better way to address general prosecution when it came to violent crime.
According to data provided to the Center for Collaborative Journalism by the the sheriff’s office, there were 731 alleged violent crimes in which the suspects were ages 10-24, and 1,273 alleged crimes in which the victims were ages 10-24, between March 8, 2016 and July 25, 2019.
“I knew we had an issue with gangs and teen violence, and so we increased our gang prosecution by, depending on how you measure it, about 1,000 percent,” Cooke said. “We’re really good at locking folks up, but what I want is less folks to lockup.”
Cooke said he learned about the success of Clayton County’s program at a conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where he met Steven Teske, chief presiding judge of the Juvenile Court of Clayton County.
While Clayton County is larger than Bibb, Cooke said, the counties share “many of the same challenges when it comes to poverty and socio economic status.”
He said when he saw the data that showed the success of the program, he was convinced it would do well in Bibb County.
“There’s really no guesswork as to whether or not something like this … is going to be successful because it’s been so successfully replicated across the country,” he said. “It’s just a matter of making sure that this survives as a partnership and an institution and remains for generations to come.”
Teske said Clayton County has experienced a decrease in delinquency filings by 84 percent since the inception of the program in 2004 and a 64 percent decrease in felony filings.
The graduation rate in Clayton County has continued to increase every year for the past nine years, according to a Clayton County Public Schools news release.
“When we criminalize adolescent behavior, we actually increase juvenile crime in our community. We make it worse. The system contributes in reducing public safety,” Teske said. “It helps to keep kids in school in a safe way.”
Experts say when teens are on the streets, it can be costly.
The average high school dropout will cost taxpayers more than $292,000 in their lifetime, according to a study by Northeastern University.
On a given day in 2006-07, nearly one in every 10 young male high school dropouts was institutionalized compared to one of 33 high school graduates, according to the study.
‘HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS’
Tajalyn Woodruff, School-Justice Partnership coordinator for Bibb County, and others at the schools work to keep kids out of court and in school.
Woodruff said school resource officers refer students to the program when they commit an eligible offense, such as theft, fighting or possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
“They’re issued those notice of offenses as an alternative to any arrest or involvement in juvenile court, and our hope is also that those students won’t go on to have any involvement in juvenile court in the future as well,” she said.
Depending on the offense, the students will receive either a written warning or they are referred to services in the community.
The students are expected to participate in the referred services, which include counseling, mediation, community services, community workshops and tutoring, she said.
Cooke said the program connects students to services that already existed before the partnership, but now students receive the services before being prosecuted.
“There’s no additional resources needed in that regard because the kids would’ve gotten it previously just by virtue of being prosecuted. Now, they don’t have to be prosecuted or arrested to get there,” he said.
Woodruff said she has found that a lot of the students who are referred have experienced a variety of trauma, and through interactions with the students and their families, they are able to identify and address those issues through the program.
“We’ve really seen lots of positive responses from the students who participate, as well as, from the the families and the parents of the students who have been served through the School Justice Partnership,” she said. “We’ve seen additional students within the families who were not necessarily identified, you know, through a notice of offense, but who were able to benefit because their family was involved with our program.”
She said they try to meet students and families where they are and help them achieve their goals by referring them to these community resources and services.
“These middle and high school students that are referred to us, we have a really awesome opportunity to impact their lives forever by equipping them with skills to handle things like conflict, grief, just even day to day stress,” she said. “We’re hoping that those skills, just the people that they’re even exposed to, can help them as they move forward in life.”
‘WHAT’S NEXT’
Going forward, Cooke said, new sources of funding will be needed to keep the program operating long-term.
Using existing services, sharing the cost of some staff salaries between agencies and using confiscated funds from the DA’s office, the annual operating budget is about $100,000 to cover the cost of the salaried positions, said Cooke.
“The hope (is) that we will look for grant opportunities and other (resources.) More permanent funding will be secured,” he said.
The School-Justice Partnership has hired a case manager, Nnamdi Onyekwuluje, to ensure the services implemented for students in the program are working.
When asked about measuring success in five years, the district attorney said when the partnership has become woven into the fabric of the Macon-Bibb he will consider that a success.
“I want to make this such an established thing that it doesn’t matter who the successor agency heads are, that this is so ingrained that we always have it,” Cooke said. “Speaking farther down the line than you are asking about, 20 years from now, I still want there to be a School Justice Partnership. I don’t want it to occur to anybody to do anything differently.”
‘A SECOND CHANCE’
As Bibb County looks to build a solid future for its program, Clayton County continues to serve as model.
The Telegraph was not allowed access to speak with any Bibb County students, but the former teen gang member from Clayton County offers a glimpse of what could be in the future for some teens here.
Lewis said when he went to court, he met Judge Teske.
“He basically told me I had two choices. He told me I could go and … take my time or I could accept a second chance court program,” Lewis said.
The program in Clayton County connected him with the Hearts to Nourish Hope resource center, which gave him resources and experiences that opened his eyes to the future, he said.
Lewis graduated from high school. He received his bachelor’s degree in aviation science and management from Middle Georgia State University and is now pursuing his graduate degree in information technology.
“My grades went up. I would bring my report card into the courtroom to report it, A’s and B’s, so it was like a dramatic turnaround,” he said. “ (Before) I just didn’t have no guidance, no direction on nothing. I feel like this program has impacted my life in ways that’s life changing.”
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