It is well-known that incarcerated juvenile girls are absolutely the most vulnerable population to be held in custody—they are targets of sexual abuse, exploitation, violence, much less likely to have adequate educational, medical and pyschological care.  For 15-year-old Shaquanda Cotton of Paris, Texas, her vulnerability as an adolescent girl in a detention facility is something she faces every single day.  Shaquanda was sentenced to 7 years in a prison for juveniles, to be locked up until her 21st birthday.  Her crime?  Pushing a hall monitor at school. 

According to Shaquanda, her mother, the NAACP, and other community activists, the judge who sentenced Shaquanda also sentenced another 14-year-old girl to probation earlier in the year—for the crime of burning her family’s house down.  Oh yes, one more thing:  Shaquanda is Black, and the girl who committed arson is white.

The town of Paris has a lengthy history of brutal racial violence, and today, according to many of its Black residents, racism is a part of daily life in the schools and the juvenile court system.  Again, this is nothing new—there are countless studies and documentation of Black, Latino, Native, and in some places Asian students being disproportionately targeted for disciplinary action in schools.  (I’m not putting links here, because all you need to do is Google “school discipline” and “Black” or “Latino” or “Native American” and you will find all the evidence you need.)

Incarceration of juveniles should be an absolute last resort, and in the case that a child is locked up, it should be for the shortest period of time possible, and the custody should focus on rehabilitation.  Even making a cost analysis, incarcerating a juvenile costs at least $35,000 a year--MANY times more than what it costs to educate him or her in a public school for one year.

Shaquanda's mother believes that the trouble for her daughter began as retaliation for her involvement in a protest in front of her daughter's school.  The message in Paris is clear:  "This is our own type of justice."