Imhotep Simba addressing UMBC Choice Program Alumni. (Photo Courtesy of US Department of Education)
By J. K. Schmid
Special to the AFRO
More than 70 percent of Maryland’s prison population is Black, despite Blacks making up just under 30 percent of Maryland’s population.
The disparities in equity and justice can be attributed to any and all things in Maryland history: slavery, poverty, segregation, redlining and so on. But in the immediate moment, Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) are taking concrete steps and getting measurable results to cushion, mend and repair some of the injuries that come with over-incarceration.
Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, DJS is still working to free Black youth and keep them free from prison. Between March 3 and July 31, DJS has cut its incarcerated population in half, dropping 108 detained juveniles to 43, by diverting non-violent offenders, and retaining violent offenders in their residential facilities. Percentage-wise, the population of misdemeanor and non-violent offenders has dropped from 73 percent to 46 percent, per an Aug. 6 DJS presentation.
DJS Secretary Sam Abed credits this dramatic reduction in incarceration figures to using diversion early and often.
“The big change is that they go directly through our diversion authority. We only have authority for misdemeanor cases, so we’re not talking about high-level offenses here, but we also see in our system that a lot of kids that are in an incarcerated status are there for misdemeanors,” Abed told the {AFRO.} “And one of the prime ways that they get there, the biggest avenues for them getting into that circumstance is because of kids getting services through a court order though a probation order.”
DJS is working now to intervene at the complaint level, before a ticket is written, before a summons is signed.
“By using the diversion authority that we have and connecting it to a tool that we’ve developed and validated, an assessment tool, and say, ‘look, we’ve been working with the Choice Program for 30 years, we know this program, we know what they deliver, and we know the kinds of kids that are successful with Choice,’” Abed said. “We don’t need to first put them through the court system, have a prosecution, then an adjudication and then an order from the court, in order to get them those services successfully. We can connect them directly.”
UMBC’s Choice program is one of many, incarceration alternatives.
“We established the Choice program over 30 years ago,” UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III told the AFRO. “It’s actually founded by Mark Shriver. I was vice-provost at the time, and we went and spoke to the community association in Cherry HIll about bringing the program to the campus, building it expanding it.”
Choice is currently supervising 500 of these diverted youth, primarily Black, primarily boys. In contrast to the stereotype or archetype of the university or academy as distant or elite, Choice work is on-campus, case-workers, services and citizens all meet at UMBC.
“The language that I use, that we’ve used, and this is my 29th year as president, the language that my colleagues and I use is that we’re knocking down the boundaries between the university and the barriers even between the university and the community,” Hrabowski said.
The president estimates 25,000 families have worked with Choice since its founding.
“We partner with agencies like the Department of Juvenile Services and other partners in the community to support young people,” Hrabowski said. “And we see this as a very important part of the work that we’ve been doing. Sam has been an amazing leader and partner in wanting to work with us. And it gives our students, alumni and others an opportunity to give back, to be involved in professional development and work with children.”
Bernice Walker, Director of Family Engagement with DJS, started her work with Choice.
“I graduated from college in 2007, I went to college at the University of Pennsylvania, came home, and started looking for work, like recent college grads do,” Walker told the AFRO. “And in my search, I came across the Choice program, and I wanted to work with young people.”
President Hrabowski is adamant that Choice is about working “with” at-risk youth.
“We understand the importance of asking, listening and acting,” Hrabowski said. Thinking particularly about listening to the voices of those children. Getting their perspective and their families, and understanding how we can bring our resources to work with them.”
“Choice has that unique kind of perspective and place where they can have a really large impact,” Walker said. “They can focus on treatment needs and offering access to resources for the youth and the families and collaborating with other providers such as MST .”
The AFRO reached out to a Choice youth participant, Imhotep Simba.
Mr. Simba is 28 years old, and currently works as community outreach, engagement, and workforce diversity analyst, at DAI.
Simba, Hrabowski and Walker all talked to the AFRO about the power of UMBC’s and Choice’s weekly College Night.
“We would initially start in the cafeteria and that was just mind blowing for me,” Simba told the AFRO. “Especially at that time, there were challenges at home, not always having food or having the food that I would have liked to order or desire. It was really cool to go to a college campus, not necessarily a college campus, but a place where there was an abundance of food. I absolutely loved that, and the rest of the children did as well.”
“And after that, we went to an academic part of college night,” Mr. Simba continued. “So, we would receive help working on our schoolwork, or there would be like, a guest fellow who would deliver some type of lecture on some academically related topic, which was cool and helpful.”
“And then the last part was a kind of free activity time, where we could play video games or work out using the gyms.”
But when Mr. Simba lost one of his closest friends to violence, community kept him going.
“I realized that the things that you were sharing about your friends, about your circle, about various outcomes, but also some other smaller skills, having a resume, firm handshake, eye coordination, those things were really put into perspective at that time of my life,” Simba said.
New perspectives also brought new horizons to Mr. Simba, and after graduation, he became a Choice intern.
“It was priceless, to be able to give back, and do for my community,” Simba said. “I didn’t look at them as beneficiaries, I looked at it as wanting to do for my community, standing up and providing knowledge that was provided to me.”
Mr. Simba went on to a larger community, serving the Peace Corps in Ecuador. He now works at a private international development firm.
“The trajectory of my life has completely changed, and it’s changed in a way that I couldn’t even have imagined, even starting my freshman year of college,” Simba said. “Serving in the Peace Corps, working in the International Development company I do now, these are all things that would’ve been very hard to believe.”