How to Respond Effectively When Kids Break the Law

What makes com­mu­ni­ties safe and helps young peo­ple — espe­cial­ly kids who make mis­takes and break the law — thrive?

To explore this ques­tion, Steve Bish­op, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion’s asso­ciate direc­tor for Pro­ba­tion and Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­tion, led an Insta­gram Live dis­cus­sion with guest Eli­jah Nor­ris-Hol­l­i­day, founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of Project Restore MN.

Dur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion, they discussed:

• the dif­fer­ence between pun­ish­ment and accountability;
• pos­i­tive inter­ven­tions that work;
• col­lab­o­ra­tion between for­mal sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty-based part­ners; and 
• the num­ber one thing that adults can do to sup­port young people.

Nor­ris-Hol­l­i­day Dis­cus­sion Highlights

Men­tor­ship and guid­ance are impor­tant to cre­at­ing healthy chil­dren. Mak­ing sure they have good, pos­i­tive peo­ple to look up to and to invest in them and to put them back on the right path when they make mis­takes. Because we know all kids are bound to make mistakes.

[Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions are] going to have a bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with young peo­ple who are strug­gling, to build with them, to gain their trust, and then to set them on a dif­fer­ent path where they can engage in pos­i­tive activ­i­ties instead of neg­a­tive things.

How do we pour all that sup­port into those young peo­ple who are engag­ing in the most risky behav­ior so when they do go back to their com­mu­ni­ty even­tu­al­ly, they’re going back a bet­ter ver­sion of themselves?

WATCH THE CON­VER­SA­TION ON INSTAGRAM