2014 National Week of Action Against Incarcerating Youth

Founded in 2013, the National Week of Action Against Incarcerating Youth was developed out of long conversations and many forums with many youth advocacy organizations and government agencies.

The week of May 19 was chosen because for two reasons, first because it close to the time when students are getting out of school for the summer, which is the time when there is the most amount of youth violence and youth incarceration.

The second reason is because it is the birthday of Malcolm X, a U.S. civil rights and Black liberation leader. Malcolm X once told his favorite teacher that he had a dream to be a lawyer. His teacher replied that this is “no realistic goal for a n-word.” This was a great cause of Malcolm X leaving school and entering the street life of selling drugs, gambling, and pimping. His childhood life is a perfect example of the school to prison pipeline, which Save the Kids works to dismantle.

Save the Kids holds to Malcolm X’s quote that, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”

Please join thousands of others in organizing around this the National Week of Action Against Incarcerating Youth. Another world is possible, and it begins with community based programs. Incarceration is not the solution, but the problem. Once youth are involved in the system, it is hard for them to get out of it.

Please support youth and our future and demand that no more youth are locked up no matter the crime they have served. Punishment and imprisoning youth are not the answers.

May 19 – Monday – Remember Malcolm X and End the Criminalization of Youth of Color and Economically Disadvantaged Youth

May 20 – Tuesday – End the Criminalization of LGBTQ Youth and Youth with Disabilities

May 21 – Wednesday – End the Sentencing and the Incarceration of Youth without Parole
More Info: Amnesty International. Children’s Rights – Juvenile Life Without Parole

May 22 – Thursday – End the Criminalization of Youth Culture

May 23 – Friday – Youth are 0 to 18 years old “Raise the Age of an Adult”
More Info: Video: Why are New York children being locked up like hardened criminals?:

May 24 – Saturday – End Solidarity Confinement of Youth
More Info: Growing Up Locked Down – Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States —

May 25 – Sunday – End Sex Trafficking of Youth and the Criminalization of Females in Sex Trafficking