Week 7 pt 2 Juvenile Courthouse

On Thursday there was an article published titled, ‘St. Louis’ Juvenile Justice System Is Failing Youth and Families,’ essentially complaining about all of the flaws in the system. The article was incredibly contradicting and poorly written so Robyn and I talked about it. Most of what the writer complained about is valid, however she never addressed any solutions. The biggest thing that I have learned as I’ve been here is that our taxes are what pay for the attorneys, DJOs, CASA workers, etc., as well as the entire building including the detention center. And because those funds are limited, nobody here is paid nearly enough and the building is incredibly outdated. So, when the journalist argued that the lack of improvement to the detention center and the fact that the kids aren’t given sunlight due to the high number of escapes in the outdoor area of the center, she doesn’t take into account the fact that they have no money to fix any of these issues. The point is, these attorneys and case workers are given inhumane case loads and paid way under what they should, while journalists complain and give no direction or thoughts on how to solve the problems.