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In 1944, the State of South Carolina executed George Stinney Jr.<\/strong>, a 14-year-old Black boy, after he was wrongly convicted of murdering two white girls.<\/p>\n A report made public late last month by the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) notes that \u201cthe straps of the electric chair were too big\u201d for Stinney\u2019s small body and \u201che sat on a stack of books to be electrocuted.\u201d<\/p>\n Stinney, arrested and interrogated alone, without his parents and without an attorney, was done in by a sole piece of evidence presented at his trial: a sheriff\u2019s claim that he confessed to the crimes.<\/p>\n An all-white jury convicted the child within 10 minutes, and it took a full 70 years after his death for him to finally be exonerated, when in 2014 a judge vacated the teen\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n The authors of the exhaustively researched, 54-page report cite Stinney\u2019s execution as part of the historical \u201cadultification\u201d of Black and brown children who are often perceived as more dangerous, more prone to be involved in drug use, less innocent, and less responsive to rehabilitation than their white peers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe George Stinney piece, that\u2019s where the concept comes in,\u201d says Tyler Whittenberg, who is deputy director of the Advancement Project and a coauthor of Invest in Our Youth, Invest in Our Children: Ending Youth Criminalization in North Carolina<\/em>, the report published by the SCSJ.<\/p>\n \u201cThe criminalization and opposition of Black and brown bodies has always been a part of white supremacy,\u201d Whittenberg says.<\/p>\n The landmark report was \u201ccreated in partnership with local grassroots organizations and highlights the long-term impact and cost of youth criminalization in North Carolina, including the psychological harm of youth detention centers and the school-to-prison pipeline,\u201d according to a SCSJ press statement.<\/p>\n The report \u201cadvocates for a divestment in youth criminalization and an investment in community-led youth wellness services in North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, the report \u201cchronicles how Black children have been historically targeted by racist policies in the criminal legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the report\u2019s findings:<\/p>\n \u2022 In 2020, Black youth represented 56 percent of juvenile complaints and 67 percent of youth placed in short- and long-term confinement but are only a quarter of North Carolina\u2019s youth population.<\/p>\n \u2022 Incarceration in North Carolina\u2019s most restrictive form of confinement disproportionately impacts African American children.<\/p>\n \u2022 On average, young people in youth development centers have three separate mental health and\/or substance use diagnoses.<\/p>\n \u2022 With the money North Carolina spends on incarcerating one child for a single year ($155,734), the state can cover in-state tuition for 23 college students annually.<\/p>\n The report also notes that the overpolicing of Black children begins in schools and \u201cforms an integral part of the school-to-prison pipeline and the social control of students of color.\u201d<\/p>\n The report authors explain that school resource officers in schools are \u201cassociated with increased referrals to law enforcement for minor, nonviolent infractions,\u201d and \u201cpolice officers often perceive Black boys as older, view them as less childlike and less innocent than white boys of the same age suspected of committing the same offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n The report makes an even more compelling case on behalf of Black girls, noting that while Black students are \u201cthe most overdisciplined demographic compared to white students … Black girls are overdisciplined at even higher rates than Black boys compared to white youth.\u201d<\/p>\n As a consequence of what the report describes as \u201cthe adultification of Black girls,\u201d their suspensions \u201care often driven by teachers\u2019 unconscious racial bias, and frequently occur when students justifiably break racist rules\u201d that include policies that prohibit specific hairstyles and clothing, thus empowering educators \u201cto apply stereotypes interpreting certain behaviors as defiant.\u201d<\/p>\n The authors also state that \u201cinsufficient mental health resources also play a role in the overcriminalization of Black girls.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the report\u2019s coauthors, Sabine Schoenbach, an attorney and senior policy analyst with the SCSJ, says the importance of the report and the story its data tells about the criminalization of youth of color across the state \u201ccannot be understated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToo long, our state has created and reinforced structures that expose North Carolina\u2019s children to traumatic experiences that negatively affect their development and potentially alter their life\u2019s trajectory with impacts into the next generation,\u201d Schoenbach states in the SCSJ release.<\/p>\n \u201cYouth heal in loving communities, not courtrooms and cages,\u201d says Imad\u00e9 Borha, an SCSJ communications advocate who is also the report\u2019s coauthor.<\/p>\n Indeed, the report questions whether a \u201cyouth punishment system\u201d should even exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole point of the report is that the system cannot be reformed,\u201d Whittenberg says.<\/p>\n The report was published against the backdrop of Durham County\u2019s ongoing plans to build a new and expanded $30 million youth detention center that will house 35 to 40 juveniles.<\/p>\n Architectural designs indicate the detention center space could be expanded to house 60 children awaiting the resolution of their criminal court cases. The new detention center will be built on undeveloped land where the current 14-bed youth home shares space with the offices of Durham County Emergency Management on Broad Street. It\u2019s expected to be completed by 2023.<\/p>\n Wendy Jacobs, cochair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, told the INDY<\/em> this week that construction of the facility is included in the budget approved this week, and is in the \u201cpre-construction\u201d phase, which includes soil studies.<\/p>\n County commissioners for several years have said they have a legal obligation to build a new detention center following the death of 17-year-old Uniece Glenae Fennell, who died by suicide in 2017 while in custody on charges of murder at the adult downtown detention center. The teen\u2019s mother, Julia Graves, filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against Durham County that claimed the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s and county jailers\u2019 neglect led to the wrongful death of her daughter.<\/p>\n As previously reported by the INDY<\/em>, at the time of her death, Uniece was a minor being detained among adult inmates, according to the wrongful death complaint her mother filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro.<\/p>\n A May 2019 settlement with Durham County included a provision requiring the board of commissioners \u201cto study, explore, and construct, if feasible, an expanded Durham County Youth Home, or develop some alternative plan for total sight and sound separation between juveniles and adults in Durham County. Only after all reasonable efforts to find an in-county placement solution have been exhausted can Durham County children be housed in an out of county facility.\u201d<\/p>\n Durham County commissioners say the court order is one of the reasons behind their support for the construction of a new youth detention center, along with a 2019 \u201craise the age\u201d law, which bars most 16- and 17-year-olds from being automatically charged as adults, and soaring rates of youth gun violence.<\/p>\n Opposition to a new youth detention center has been considerable over the past two years, most notably in November, during a virtual, two-hour town hall, \u201cYouth Heal in Communities, Not Cages,\u201d hosted by members of Durham Beyond Policing, a coalition of local groups who want divestment from jails and prisons and investment in evidence-based crime prevention models.<\/p>\n Whittenberg, while speaking with the INDY<\/em> this week, again criticized a new youth detention center and questioned the need for such an expanded facility.<\/p>\n \u201cThe county already detains a small number of juveniles\u2014two or three\u2014accused of murder. That\u2019s no excuse to lock up 36 children in Durham.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittenberg calls the county commissioners\u2019 insistence that they have a legal obligation to build a youth detention center because of Uniece\u2019s death \u201ca false argument,\u201d along with one county commissioner\u2019s scenario of a teen on a \u201cmurderous rampage\u201d being allowed back on the streets where he can harm another family.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the same fear-based logic behind the war on drugs,\u201d Whittenberg says. \u201cThe same logic that led to mass incarceration. How different is that from [former president] Nixon? It\u2019s the same logic that led us here.\u201d<\/p>\n He notes that after the mass shooting in Uvalde, America\u2019s elected officials who are struggling with an unprecedented rise in gun violence would realize that calls for more police, arming teachers, and \u201chardening\u201d schools are not effective.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to build fortresses around schools but offer no mental health counseling,\u201d Whittenberg says. \u201cPeople are beginning to see the hypocrisy.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittenberg, an attorney, praised Durham County district attorney Satana Deberry\u2019s decision to stop prosecuting criminal referrals from Durham Public Schools, saying that complaints from the school system accounted for 80 percent of all juvenile complaints prior to her election in 2019 but have now \u201cshot down to 12 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDurham has been doing a great job,\u201d Whittenberg told the INDY<\/em> this week. \u201cNow it\u2019s about to head down the wrong road. If you build it, it\u2019s going to fill up,\u201d he adds about the new youth detention center.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery city says it\u2019s different,\u201d Whittenberg says. \u201cBut they\u2019re all locking Black boys up. How is that different?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Support independent local journalism<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>Join the INDY Press Club<\/em><\/strong><\/a> to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> or send an email to <\/em>tmcdonald@indyweek.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n