From the Stories That Changed my Life file: "Justice, revenge and another failed system"

“If you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.” Thomas Moore - Utopia

The name in this story has been altered

Jo’s* story is another one of those stories which has had a profound impact on me.

I met Jo when working at a Private Training Establishment near the beginning of my career as a Youth Worker. PTE’s – often referred to as course by the rangatahi – are private education facilities created to support young people who have been failed by the public education system.

For some reason Jo stood out to me. Thinking back, I’m not sure why that was. He wasn’t the sort of person to draw attention to himself, in fact he was extremely shy and quiet. But, maybe this was what drew me to him. In a room full of rambunctious, loud and crazy teenagers, Jo was quiet and calm.

And though the boys we were supporting could display some challenging behaviors at times; Jo was always helpful and kind. I don’t know what it was, but there was something different about him. One of the main things I remember about Jo was his hunger and desire to learn. He loved studying and was so committed to achieving his goals of graduating from course.

Which is why I was super surprised one day when he just stopped coming.

Yet though it seemed out of character for Jo it wasn’t unusual for some of our students to go missing for a week or two before finding their way back, so after trying to get a hold of him for a while – and failing – we got back on with it just hoping that he would decide to return.

And he did return. This time with bail conditions and youth aid officer in tow.

I had been surprised at his initial disappearance, but this turn of events was even more surprising for me (I was a fairly green Youth Worker at the time).

Jo had been done for aggravated assault. This young, sweet 16-year-old kid had been allegedly involved in gang banging a member of the community.

After our initial discussion with the officer, we helped Jo slot back into class and get caught up on his work. But, later that day as I dropped Jo off home I asked him about what was going on. I still remember how his head hung low, his voice quiet and filled with shame as he gathered his courage and prepared to tell me his story.

Jo’s family were leaders of a local gang. For him this meant that he was expected to participate in the gang’s activity when he was told to do so.

If he refused… he was beaten.

He told me about the assault – and about what had really happened that night. He told me about how the older guys in the gang had assaulted some guy, and that once it was done he had been instructed to take the rap for it.

He was young, afraid, and with no other options. This gang were the only family he had.

He did what he was told.

But, what he shared next has stuck with me to this day.

He went on to tell me of his desire to succeed in his education. He told me how a few weeks ago he had completed one of his assessments and in excitement had taken it home to show his family.

Their response is not what you would expect.

Instead of being greeted with excitement or encouragement, he was greeted with anger.

Instead of receiving praise as a reward for his good work, he was given violence.

When I heard this, it broke my heart. And it was one of my first glimpses into the reality of what we were facing.

The program I was working in was trying to support our rangatahi to change their future. We were attempting to empower them to have a better life, to grasp onto hope. To believe that things did not have to be the way they have always been.

But, our courses only ran 4 days a week, for several hours a day. And when they would leave our program - with all the positive support it provided - they left us and went back to their own lives. Lives which were pulling them in the completely opposite direction from what they wanted to achieve.

Lives so focused on survival, that at times there was no room for the luxury of dreams… or even hope.

Its easy to tell a young person to just take personal responsibility over their own lives. To make better decisions, to just do the “right” thing. But, what I realized through Jo was that sometimes the “right thing” isn’t as easy to choose as you might imagine. For some of our rangatahi the choices between “right” and “wrong” are not as clear cut.

Jo faced a choice between going to class and staying clear of crime – and in return receiving violence, abuse and possibly risking being chucked out on the street - or staying compliant and thus avoiding the risks of homelessness and abuse that were on offer.

Which is the right choice?

What would your 16-year-old self-choose?

Since meeting Jo I have often heard the Jo’s of this world discussed, stereotyped and villainized as an almost daily occurrence; either on morning talk back radio or in the countless threads that exist here on social media.

They call them “mongrels”, “scumbags”, “lowlife scum”.

I’m sure you’ve heard them too.

And though I do not advocate or endorse the crimes these young people often find themselves a party too – and though my heart equally breaks for the victims of these crimes - neither can I write them off and stand quiet when powerful voices in our society call for them to be locked up for good.

These teenagers you see today were the abused and neglected kids you felt compassion for in yesterday’s news cycle.

Right now, our parliament is poised to make a decision on building a new mega prison. If we go ahead with this build, we will be admitting that we have failed our rangatahi. We will essentially be saying to them that they are without hope.

https://flic.kr/p/38wBWq

Jacinda Ardern said in an interview on RNZ on Tuesday that “if we change nothing in our justice system we will be building new prisons every 3 years.”

What we are doing is not working.

Locking people up, without recognizing the stories which have shaped them does nothing to curb our prison populations. Labeling young offenders as “lowlife scum bags” doesn’t alter the challenging reality of their past.

We need to work on prevention. We need to stop stereotyping people and recognize the trauma underlining these behaviors. We need to remember the stories that sit behind these people we so easily dismiss.

We need to remember Jo.

A young kid who wanted desperately to live a different life, yet no matter how hard he tried he constantly found himself having to make hard choices between his own survival… and conforming to social norms.

We have more power than we think. Our attitudes and beliefs will influence the Government’s response on this topic.

With all the research pointing to the need for Western countries to change their culture of incarceration, why do you think the Government has dragged its feet on making significant reforms in our justice system.

Put simply. They are scared of losing your vote.

The same voices that cry out in anger for an end to child abuse, just as vehemently scream “THREE STRIKES AND YOUR OUT!”

It is time we laid down our culture of revenge focused justice and began looking for a solution that actually works.

A system that recognizes the part we have to play in this story.

A system that see's the needs of the individual.

A system that works.

  Aaron Hendry