house there’s a youth detention center
it’s called Delaware Youth
rehabilitative services
however our community knows it better as
Ferriss I confess that as I passed this
building by I’ve always had an eerie
sort of out worldly feeling however
other than that I had never given it
much thought
I’m sure each of you are sitting here
wondering why a young teenage girl like
me chose to get involved with those
who’ve gotten in trouble with the law
sort of makes you wonder very remote and
strange to each of you just as it was to
me several years ago I could have never
imagined that something as severe as
incarceration would happen to someone
like me until it did my neighbor was
seven years old he lived in a beautiful
home in a safe neighborhood
he played baseball at Piedmont and he
attended a private school he would have
never imagined that his life would soon
spiral out of control his parents got
divorced and he moved into the city of
Wilmington with his mother after some
time his mom became involved with drugs
and as a young teen he too developed a
drug addiction as you can imagine this
drug addiction led him to being
desperate for money and willing to do
anything to get it so not surprisingly
this led to his arrest and incarceration
at Ferris I ask each of you to think
about the mistakes you have made in your
lives I’m sure most if not all of you
have been lucky enough to have been
provided with a second chance you have
had that support system at home that has
helped pull you out of those dark places
in which we find ourselves when we make
these mistakes where would you be
without that second chance where would
you be without that support system at
home I tend to think of the teenage
years as a time where we don’t know the
consequences of our actions we rarely
consider them but when we are given that
second chance to redeem ourselves regain
our dignity then we do learn and we do
better the next time hopefully
I think that many of you would be
surprised to learn that 70% of our
incarcerated youth in Delaware are black
teens that are imprisoned for crimes
that go unreported in affluent suburbs
now don’t get me wrong I fully believe
that people should be held accountable
for their actions but I think that our
society tends to become numb to the fact
that many of these teens come from
dysfunctional families so this statistic
of 70% of our incarcerated youth may
surprise each of you but it doesn’t
surprise those teens at Ferris in fact
they have reported to the News Journal
that they feel as if society is stacked
against them they have said that they
view jail as just an inevitability in
life a step in life like many of you
view college for you that they are bound
to visit at least once in their lifetime
just let that sink in our teens kids in
our community think that our world is
stacked against them they simply think
that our world is waiting for them to
make a mistake and being quick to punish
them when they do as you’re thinking
about that I’m going to provide you with
two examples of teens in our community
their stories really resonate with me
the first is Antonio him and his family
were immigrants living in the city of
Wilmington as a young teen Antonio was
searching for any friend he could find
he would hang out in front of his
homeless shelter in Wilmington and
befriend anyone who walked by in short
time he became involved in a game pretty
at the beginning he thought this was
pretty cool he had some friends who
would do things together but just as
gang activity starts it came in to
truancy is orderly conduct and
involvement with alcohol and drugs so
I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I
tell you that these activities led to
his arrest and incarceration at Ferris I
began to after some time when he had
completed his rehabilitation and he was
ready to be released to our community I
asked myself what would happen to him
when he returned to the same section of
the city with the same
and surrounded by the same crimes would
he wind up right where he just was back
in incarceration it seemed like a
hopeless cycle to me and I was simply
puzzled
I became saddened to learn that this is
exactly what happens in many
circumstances so then I became aware of
a similar situation to Antonio’s a boy
named Tyler and he was involved in gang
activities similar to Antonio however
after his incarceration it became aware
to me that he did not have a home to go
to after every other possibility had
been exploited his grandmother stepped
up to take him into her care but she was
honest with the fact that she did not
have a bed nor a couch for him to sleep
on and he would have to be comfortable
with living on the floor so then I asked
myself how would I be asked to complete
homework assignments participate in
sporting events or partake in any social
interactions without a bed to sleep in
at night I knew that I would be pretty
cranky and probably get into some
trouble myself so I learned that his
teens have fallen through the cracks in
our society they are headed for a life
of crime
this ad reality is that our rate of
reincarnation also known as recidivism
has recently reached a high of 75
percent in the city of Wilmington this
means that 3 out of every 4 youth who
find themselves incarcerated in the
beginning of their life wind up back in
incarceration at some point during their
whole life that’s 3 out of every 4 teens
this statistic should not be ignored yet
our society continues to overlook it I
ask you to evaluate the consequences of
actions as a society what are we doing
to help these teens reenter society what
does this incarceration now an indelible
mark on their record mean to each of us
for as I involve myself in multiple
service projects with the residents at
Ferris I was saddened to learn that very
little was being done
this high rate of recidivism outraged
over a system that seemed to recycle
teens back into these hopeless
situations for this exact reason I
created youth overcoming obstacles with
the help of mr. Jack McDonough deputy
director of Delaware youth
rehabilitative services I set out to
create an organization in Delaware that
would help these incarcerated teens who
could not help themselves
my ultimate goal through this
organization is to bridge the gap for
these incarcerated teens who want to
succeed when they return back to their
home communities now through my
organization I was able to provide
Tyler’s family with the necessary
monetary needs they needed to move out
of the city and into a new school
district I was also able to provide a
bed for Tyler so that he could
participate in those sporting events
completing his homework assignments and
partake in any social interactions with
a good attitude I am here to tell each
of you that if you think teens can’t
make a difference in the adult world we
can I have learned that I have a voice
and when my observations turn into
actions it matters I firmly believe that
the state will back us in creating and
advancing opportunities for all teens
who need and want to make a difference
in our community so I ask each of you to
join me in creating second chances for
the incarcerated teens in our community
this is simply by changing your mindset
instead of seeing these mistakes and
writing these teams off and punishing
them for their mistakes I ask you to
embrace their mistakes I ask you to help
them develop their lives and make our
community better so I want each of you
to join me on my path to being an agent
of change in our community because after
all changing society’s view on
incarcerated youth starts with all of
you thank [Applause]