JODY KENT LAVY: Hi.
I'm Jody Kent Lavy.
I'm the director of the
Campaign for the Fair
Sentencing of Youth.
We are a nonprofit
based in Washington, DC.
And we are working to
end the United States
practice of sentencing our
children to life in prison
without the
possibility of parole.
Many people ask us
what does it mean
to sentence a kid
to life in prison
without the
possibility of parole?
Doesn't life in prison
mean that they'll
get out after 15, 20, 25 years?
And in fact, life
without parole means
that these are children who've
been told that they'll never,
ever see a second chance.
They'll never have an
opportunity for review.
And for context, Charles
Manson from the great state
of California has come
up for review 12 times.
But these kids never will.
In the United States, there
are more than 2,500 people
who've been sentenced
to life without parole.
And they are concentrated
in five states.
The vast majority of
them are concentrated
in just five states,
California being one of them.
Everyone always guesses
Texas, but that's actually
not one of the top five states.
Texas actually banned life
without parole for children.
Michigan, Pennsylvania--
Pennsylvania
leads the nation in
this practice-- Florida,
and-- did I get them all--
California, Pennsylvania,
Louisiana, Michigan,
and Florida.
Is that five?
Yeah.
OK.
So in the last few years since
our organization was launched,
there's been a tremendous amount
of progress on this issue.
In fact, in California,
just since 2012, there
have been a number
of reforms that
has made it possible for these
young people who are serving
time in prisons across the
state to come up for review
and prove that they're
eligible or should be
eligible for a second chance.
The US Supreme Court
has now stepped
in several times to the limit
the practice of sentencing kids
to life without parole.
And in doing so,
they've relied a lot
on adolescent development
research, which
shows that kids
are fundamentally
different than adults
and that as a result
of those unique characteristics
of children, things that all
of us know having been teens--
that they tend to be more
reckless the adults, that they
are more susceptible to peer
pressure, that they don't
think through the consequences
of their actions the same way
adults do, and they're also
uniquely capable of change
and rehabilitation--
so relying on that science
and relying on that research,
the Supreme Court has
stepped in to limit
the practice of sentencing
youth to life without parole.
So what the campaign does is
we organize a national movement
to take these Supreme
Court decisions
and to educate policymakers
around the country
to help them recognize these
differences between kids
and adults and to
make sure that we're
holding our young people
accountable in age-appropriate
ways and that we're
never sentencing
them to die in prison.
And a really critical
component of our work
has been just in
the last few years
to demonstrate through a lot
of different sort of techniques
involving public education,
legislative advocacy,
and litigation just who
these young people are
and what they're
capable of when they're
given the right opportunities.
And so one of the
leaders in this work--
probably the leader
in this work-- who
has been the face of
shifting this narrative
in a lot of venues
around the country
is my colleague,
Xavier McElrath-Bey,
who you're going to
hear from in a minute.
I just want to say that
just in the last five years,
we have nearly doubled the
number of states that ban
juvenile life without parole.
That said, the
majority of states
still allow this sentence
for our young people.
We're the only
country in the world
that does this to our kids.
So we have a long way to go.
We have momentum with us.
There are Republicans
and Democrats alike
who are working with
us who are really
championing these reforms.
And I think really the
underlying motivation often
comes from the stories
of the people who
are directly impacted who
are key partners in our work.
And one of them is here with
us today to share his story.
[APPLAUSE]
XAVIER MCELRATH-BEY: I'm
very happy to be here.
I'm a Chicago native.
I'm really excited to
be in San Francisco
to see the wonderful work
and creativity of Google.
And I have to say that my life
has been shaped by Google.
And people may not have an
opportunity to talk about that.
But I actually base
a lot of my work
by using a lot of the tools
that provided by Google.
And for that, I want
to thank all of you.
And to give one funny
example, when we have quoting,
we have annual reports.
And one thing that we
had to do most recently
was provide a recap in the
past year of some of our work.
And one of the tasks
for me and being
able to execute
that expectation was
to identify all the media
that I can and the Campaign
for the Fair Sentencing
of Youth has generated
and through our particular
national network.
And I may have came across as
quite organized and efficient.
But the fact of the
matter is I went to Google
and I put in the search tools.
I put in the past year
and I clicked All.
And voila, I got my results.
And it was quite easy.
So I had to tell them myself.
Sorry, Jody.
But I'm really happy to be
here, and most importantly,
because I was able to visit
with some individuals yesterday
at San Quentin Prison.
Walking in for me
personally is always
a challenge when I go
into a secure facility
because to be quite honest with
you, up until 13 years ago,
I grew up in secure facilities
throughout the state
of Illinois.
I was convicted at
a very early age--
at the age of 13 years old--
for first degree murder.
I was guilty.
I was responsible.
And I plead guilty.
But at that age, what was
mostly unspoken in my life
was the fact that not
only was I someone
who had a very unfortunate
track record of repeated arrests
and convictions, but I
was also a child that
had endured some very
horrific things early on which
sort of manifested itself in a
very devastating way-- in a way
which I had landed
in the justice system
with a 25-year sentence of
the age of 13 years old.
I was fortunate to have a
public defender, [INAUDIBLE] who
recognized my youthfulness first
and foremost-- something that
at that time in the late 1980s,
unfortunately, was not being
recognized for many children.
When I stood in that
sally port waiting
to be transferred over
to the Cook County Court,
I wasn't alone.
There were many other kids that
were shackled alongside me.
And I remember being transferred
over into the adult court.
And I remember when we
walked into the tunnel,
we went into the tunnel
of the Cook County Court.
We went up a very grim
and dark elevator.
When we got to the
courthouse level,
we had to walk
past some bullpens.
And when we went
past the bullpens,
they were populated with
a bunch of individuals
who were awaiting trial
who had just been arrested
or being processed
into their division.
And I remember hearing a
lot of the guys yelling out
of the cracks in the bars
saying, man, that's messed up.
And they're saying all these
things-- a little profanity,
but expressing something that it
took me a while to catch on to.
But what they were expressing
was their anger and how upset
they were that us,
that little children,
were being taken into
the same courtrooms,
being faced with the
same consequences,
that they were being faced with.
And I think that looking
at that in retrospect,
it made me question our own
way of dealing with kids today.
And if these individuals
who are deemed
as the worst of the
worst in our society--
if they can have the humanity
and compassion to recognize
that these were
just children, why
can't others individuals
who are involved in creating
these systems and designed the
treatment programs very early
on-- why can't they recognize
the needs of our children, who
for most part have
been failed by so many?
And so not to make an
excuse for my past mistakes,
but I would simply say
that I was not alone.
There were many of us.
We came from different
communities and cities
across the state.
But for the most part, we
had some things in common.
And those things were
trauma, first and foremost.
Second of all, many of us
were living in households
that were very hostile, had
struggled mental illness,
substance abuse.
We lived in poor
[INAUDIBLE] communities.
We lived in environments
that were very toxic,
not nurturing,
and unfortunately,
were producing some very
poor decisions on our behalf.
As early as six years old, I
was placed in a foster care.
And in fact, that was
the very first time
I was placed in a police
car for that transport.
And when I got out of
the foster care system
two and a half years
later, I went back
to the same poor
[INAUDIBLE] community,
went back to the same
poverty, the same struggle--
the mental illness
and substance abuse
that took place
to my home-- and I
wasn't able to rise above that.
And I wasn't able to
escape the negative impacts
of those traumas very early on.
And so I gravitated
towards a gang life.
And what I think that
is often, I guess,
unspoken, as well, is that
these individuals, these kids--
although they made
these poor decisions,
in their heart of hearts,
they're really not bad kids.
And that's why our model
as a national network,
the Incarcerated Children's
Action Network, is no child
is born bad.
It's not a coincidence that
the majority of these kids
are coming from these
type of upbringings.
And so the age of
13 years old when
I was faced with 20
to 60 years in prison,
I had a strong advocate,
as I mentioned--
my public defender-- who
fought very hard for me.
And she convinced the judge
to give me a 25-year sentence.
And I know that
may sound extreme.
But under the old law,
that meant day-for-day,
meaning for every
good day you served,
I would have a day
taken off my time.
I would have an
opportunity in my mid 20s
to be able to come out, recreate
myself, and start a new life.
And unfortunately, individuals
that I met with yesterday
in San Quentin don't
have that option.
The individuals in San Quentin,
although they were in their 30s
and 40s, and one gentleman had
been in prison for 40 years
since he was a
teenager-- because
of the seriousness
of his offense,
he has been told repeatedly by
a parole board he would never
be free despite his
positive change,
despite the fact that he's
involved himself in programs,
has helped to build a
sweat lodge on campus,
one of the first
ones in the state;
has helped to mentor young
kids coming into prisons,
at-risk youth who have been
brought into the prison walls
to learn from those who
have made horrible mistakes
but who want to help
children make better ones
in their lives.
And despite all this
positive change,
despite what's undeniable within
himself, and unfortunately,
within many of
those around him, he
would never be free unless we
bring about the type of reforms
that we're fighting for.
And that's why I'm very happy
to be a part of the campaign.
I'm very happy to be able to
lend my voice as someone who's
not exceptional, who's not
the exception to the rule,
but as someone
whose life is really
indicative of every child's
capacity for positive change--
that none of us are beyond
redemption, beyond repair--
and that at the very
young age of 18 years old,
after having been in
prison for five years,
that I was able to reach a
point of maturity and awareness
that made me reflect
upon my life.
It made me desire something
bigger and better.
It made me recognize that many
of the things that I had done
up until that point were not
really reflective of who I
really was inside,
but that, in fact, I
was a product of
my environment--
that, in fact, I was working
out of those untreated
traumas, those emotion
deprivations that made me
susceptible to
peer pressure, made
me more susceptible to do things
that are outside my nature.
But at the age of a growing
sense of maturity and remorse,
I decided to take
control of my life.
I decided to get myself
involved in the school,
to leave the gang that
I was associated with,
to get my life on track.
And I had sort of envisioned
a parallel universe.
I had envisioned my life--
as it was, obviously,
within the prison walls--
but how it would also look
had I never been incarcerated.
And I told myself
at 17, 18 years old,
I would have finished
high school at that point.
And because of that
mindset, I said,
well, I need to get my GED.
And I knocked it out right away.
And I said what
would I be at 21?
And I said I'll have
my associate's degree.
So I pursued my
associate's degree.
Where would I be at 23, 24?
I would probably have
my bachelor's by then.
And if I could
have, I would have
worked for my master's, but I
had to wait until years later.
But I was able to enroll
myself into a bachelor's degree
program and get a bachelor's
degree in social science
with a 4.0 GPA, was inducted
into the Franklin Honor
Society for Outstanding
Scholarship,
and was really
excelling academically,
and was really
taking on this belief
that I could do something
better in my life upon release--
a release date that
was within years away
and which enabled me to have
a greater hope for a better
future.
Unfortunately, many people
don't have the light
at the end of the tunnel.
Many individuals like some
of the kids that I grew up
with in the system
are still there today.
And because of that, it is not
that I carry some survivor's
guilt, but I certainly
carry a responsibility--
a sense of responsibility
that tells me
that I should not
forget who they are
and that I should amplify their
messages and their stories;
that I should make known to
the world that not just myself,
but many others
within the system
have such great potentials,
for many unfortunately
their potential is
being wasted away.
That such dreams and
hopes and even better
hopes and for our
communities are simply
languishing away there
behind prison walls
and costing millions of
tax dollars, unnecessarily.
And so when we
talk about reform,
we're talking about not
just a legal obligation
and a moral obligation, but also
the most commonsense obligation
that we have to ourselves
and to our community,
and not only that,
but to recognize
the needs of those
who have been harmed--
not just those who
have entered the system
and have experienced
traumas and made
poor decisions,
but also those who
have been impacted by violence.
A great part of our work
as a national network
is to address the
needs of the community.
Many of us work in a capacity
as substance abuse counselors.
Many of us work in a capacity
as youth development program
coordinators.
Many of us work in a
capacity of employing
formerly incarcerated folks.
And so this is the work
that we do in our own lives.
And I often say the Incarcerated
Children's Advocacy Network,
which is a national network
reforming incarcerated youth--
when they came to us,
they were already leaders.
But had you met them
in a public space
or at a conference
or an event, you
would have never known
that as children, they
were all convicted of
homicide-related offenses.
You would have never
known that many of them
were once sentenced to life
without the possibility
of parole.
But because the pardons
and exonerations
and other legal interventions,
that they're now
able to be out to live a normal
life and to show the world
that they, too, were able to
recreate and start a new life.
And so that is our
hope for many others
who are serving that time.
We also hope that
individuals who are out
and who are formerly
incarcerated
will continue to work together.
So we often convene.
We convene annually.
We train together.
We work with each other.
We're supportive of one another.
We also come together
for workshops
that help us hone our
skills as advocates
to be better advocates for those
who we often in so many ways
try to represent.
And so that is really
a big purpose of ICAN.
But another big purpose
of our national network
is really to keep
those who are currently
incarcerated informed,
and then not only that,
but also to help them understand
that they're not forgotten.
I understand how it
feels to be incarcerated.
I understand in so many
ways the sad reality,
the existential nightmare of
being incarcerated and feeling
forgotten by society.
And it's so easy
for many people not
to think of those who are
in prison since childhood.
And in fact, many family
and friends often move on.
But because of their big hearts
and the willingness of those
who are on the front lines
of reform and the desire
and passion they have to help
see their release and life be
recreated, they've been
able to have something
to hold onto-- a hope to believe
in, something to look forward
to, an incentive
towards positive change.
And a sense of that
in so many ways
has helped even
within the system
in terms of the prison stability
and preventing violence.
And oftentimes, these are
the conflict mediators.
Oftentimes, they are running
sort of justice programs
within the facilities.
They're the trustees.
They're the ones who are
entrusted with yesterday,
the place we went was
a building that was
unattended for the most part.
But yet these are
all individuals
who are deemed as the
worst of the worst.
But yet there was not a single
guard within that facility.
And they're running their
own programs, programs
that have affected upon their
own sense of masculinity,
their own sense of how
to overcome their trauma,
who they are today,
what does empathy mean.
These are questions
that we hardly even
entertain in free society.
But yet they're digging
deep within themselves
to discover who they really are,
to discover their own humanity,
to find ways-- and
innovative ways,
in fact-- to give back
to their communities,
to have cancer awareness
marches within the facility,
to have events in
which they were
able to create origami
hearts for kids who
are in hospitals, to have events
where they're able to create
food can drives and food
drives to give to the homeless.
And all this is taking place
within the prison walls.
And yet when they
had to organize
an event, a
fundraising event, they
came to find that the
inmates and the families
gave more than the community.
And that just goes
to show the level
of desire they have to live
out that eternal apology,
to give back to the
communities, to sort of live out
the sort of penances
that we all carry
and a desire to make
amends with society.
And so I hope that all of
you at Google in some ways
recognize the value of their
human potential, the value
of what they had to offer.
And with that, I want to
turn it back over to Jody
and give her an opportunity to
share about some possible ways
in which you can help.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
JODY KENT LAVY:
Thank you, Xavier.
I never like to
follow his remarks.
But anyway, here I am.
I also want to just thank
Jonathan for having us
here at Google and
mention, as Xavier said, we
rely on Google daily, hourly.
At our office, we actually
have all of our shared
files in Google Drive.
And that's what we go
to, we really rely on.
And I know it's donated to us.
And we're incredibly grateful.
We also being based in DC, the
way that we communicate weekly
for our staff meeting with
our colleague in Chicago,
with Xavier, is via
Google Hangouts.
So we're really
grateful to what you all
have been able to create
that makes our work possible
and makes it possible
for us to stay
in constant communication
with one another
to strengthen our efforts.
So as I mentioned,
the campaign is
involved in a lot of
different strategies
to end life without
parole for kids.
We do advocacy, litigation,
public education,
and coalition building.
We host an annual
convening in DC every year,
which we would
welcome you all to.
It's a great opportunity
to learn about not
only the issues and the
challenges people are facing
and where you learn best
practices from one another,
but to learn from the
people directly impacted
and to be in a room with them
to better understand their life
experiences, like Xavier's
and other ICAN members,
as well as victim
family members.
Often times, people
are surprised to know
that we work with people
who've lost loved ones to youth
violence.
But the reality is
that not all of them
want to see the system
throw these kids away.
Many of them find it healing
to see the people who
killed their loved ones out and
doing well in the community.
These are some of the
most courageous people
I've ever met.
And they inspire us
in our work every day.
And we're actually
in the year ahead
aspiring to launch a national
network similar to ICAN
of victim family
members to make sure
that their voices are heard
because too often, it's only
the victims that are seeking
punitive policies and sentences
that we hear from.
And so in the year
ahead, we are looking
to better connect
with those folks
and create a national network.
So we welcome the
brilliance of Googlers
in figuring out how to
stay better connected
and using technology to do that.
We hope that more than anything
that you'll share information
about this practice, you'll
share Xavier's story.
We have a video that features
a number of the ICAN members
who worked in Nevada
last year and helped
to pass a bill
unanimously to ban life
without parole for children.
We think that the
more people recognize
that this is something our
country and our country
alone does to our kids, and
people who have kids or know
teenagers or were
once teenagers,
when you start to
think about the fact
that kids are-- especially kids
who grow up in environments
that are oppressive
and do not provide
the kind of opportunities
that many of us
have had-- that the
circumstances really shape
young people and that when
they're given opportunity,
they can change and
do great things.
And so I think when
people recognize that
and they know that this is
something that we're doing,
people want to get
engaged and involved.
And so we'd welcome your
participation joining us.
If you go to our website, you
can sign up for our newsletters
and stay involved
and stay posted
on the various developments
around the country.
And if you go to
our website, you'll
see that we would also welcome
volunteers to help us even
improve our website.
We certainly look to the
pros for that sort of thing.
I always tell people if your
kid gets locked up, call me.
And I'll look to
you for whatever
it is that you guys do best.
And I know at Google, you guys
come with incredible ideas
and technology.
And that's something that
we would value in partnering
with you guys in the future.
So the other thing that
we think that is really
remarkable about the young
people that we work with--
and many of them
not young anymore,
but who are in the
inside-- is that they
have an incredible ability
to not only, like Xavier
was saying, reflect on
sort of what their life
experiences have been and how
they've overcome the traumas
and helped to really
rehabilitate themselves,
many of them have
incredible skills.
Many of them are
artists we know.
We get some of the
most brilliant artwork
sent to our office.
And so one idea we
had was wouldn't it
be great to have a Google
Doodle from a juvenile lifer
to demonstrate that this is the
potential of these young people
that we've told are worth
nothing more than dying
in prison and to
people recognize
that this is a
population that continues
to live despite being
told that and continues
to hope for a second chance?
So those are a couple of things.
We welcome your
ideas, as I said.
I am just excited to be
here and for the opportunity
and to tap into the world
of ideas that you all bring.
So thank you again, Jonathan.
And thanks to everyone for
taking time to hear our story
and to learn about our work.
[APPLAUSE]
