Speak Up: Education of Delaware’s incarcerated kids scrutinized

Nearly 500 children went through Delaware’s juvenile justice system from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The majority of them stayed an average of 45 days in one of the system’s detention centers during that time. Most were 16 or older, but there were some as young as 12, and many were several years behind in their education when detained. At a presentation by the Delaware Department of Education to the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee, Rep. Ruth Briggs King, R-Georgetown, said youth in facilities like the Stevenson House Detention Center in Milford and the Ferris School in Wilmington can be several grade levels behind and may not be ready for career technical education, raising questions about how to set these students up for success.

• The systems are flawed and built to destroy our children. Instead of asking what is wrong with them, we should be asking what happened to them. — Bam Wam
• Bad parenting. They need to be kept in prison. — Charlie Harper
• What? — Benjamin Black
• Trauma is real, and it passes from one generation to the next. The age and brain of the child really affect our children at times of trauma. Our brains and nervous systems respond differently. Our justice systems do not allow any good therapeutic, trauma-informed therapy. The generational cycle continues. People can heal, but our prisons are filled with a lot of abused children that have not healed. — Bam Wam