I first met Mariah two years ago, when I worked as a youth advocate in the Harris County Advocate Program (H-CAP) in Houston. Mariah, 14, was on probation for breaking a classmate’s nose. She was a thin girl whose clothing often reflected the urban, pop-culture uniform of her generation: skinny jeans, slightly sagged of course, and colorful sneakers.
Mariah’s father had passed away, and her mother was battling cancer at the time. The teen shared a two-bedroom home with her mother, two brothers, two sisters and a niece.
Mariah and I used to meet a few times a week to talk about her behavioral and academic progress. I tried to expand her mind by taking her to the Buffalo Soldier Museum and having her complete various writing assignments related to major historical events. Sometimes, we would simply go to the nearest fast food place and talk.
No matter how much time I spent with her, neither my training nor the advocacy program was what she needed.
The goal of programs like H-CAP is to reduce the chances of juvenile repeat offenders by providing court-ordered classes and supervised extracurricular activities during their probationary period.
[For more of this story, written by Alyssa Rachelle, go to http://jjie.org/op-ed-texas-department-ineffective-at-treating-youth-offenders-root-issues/107906/]
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