A local community organization hosted a rally Sunday afternoon to address issues concerning youth incarceration in Syracuse and central New York.

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse hosted a “Rally for Justice” to call for ending the source of income discrimination, expanding pre-kindergarten education, raising the age of being tried as an adult from 16 to 18 years old and ending the solitary confinement of incarcerated minors. The event took place at the Tucker Missionary Baptist Church in Syracuse. The organization also called upon state and city legislators to provide solutions to these issues.

ACTS is comprised of more than 20 organizations from the Syracuse area and a congregation of many faiths, including Christians, Muslims and Jewish people.

Sally Santangelo of CNY Fair Housing first took the podium to kick off ACTS’ call to action by advocating source of income discrimination during the rally. Santangelo said central New York residents who receive government subsidies to pay rent are subjected to discrimination by landlords without consequences. Under the current rule in New York state, landlords are legally allowed to deny people housing because their rent is paid with government subsidies.

Source of income discrimination, Santangelo said, is illegal in nine states, but not in the state of New York. She said this income discrimination is used as a proxy for racial and disability discrimination, as people of color and people with disabilities receive government subsidies more than other groups.

She urged the crowd to go vote for legislation to end source of income discrimination in November.

“We can’t continue to lament our problems and not do anything about it,” Santangelo said.

Aneesah Evans, co-chair of the Community Violence and Youth Task Force that addresses problems of community violence in Syracuse, then stood behind the podium and opened with a simple phrase: “People are dying.”

She asked 22 people in the room to stand silently. Evans said those 22 people represented the 22 violent deaths that occurred in Syracuse since the beginning of 2016.

“The young people in our community deserve to feel safe at home and in their schools,” she said.

The evening focused heavily on the well-being of children in the Syracuse area. The majority of the speakers were parents who live in Syracuse with children in the Syracuse City School District.

Darlene Medley, a mother of nine children ranging from nine-month-old twins to a 22-year-old, said she has to walk her children to school four times a day because she feels it isn’t safe for them to walk alone and the school district doesn’t provide buses.

Medley explained her decision to quit her job to take care of her kids. She told the crowd of more than 100 people that it wasn’t a forced decision because her children’s education trumps her having a job.

“All of your kids are my children, and I mean that from the depths of my heart,” she said.

Medley expressed her concern with the upcoming winter weather and not being able to leave her newborn children at home to walk her older children to school. She said doesn’t want the babies to freeze outside and she doesn’t think her children are safe enough to walk alone.

Peter Kozik, assistant professor of education at Keuka College and working in ACTS’ Pre-K division, had a three-part plan to expand pre-K education in Syracuse.

Buses and transportation for children is imperative to their success, he said. Most working families, Kozik said, do not have the time or the means to take their kids to pre-K, so having safe transportation for kids would allow them to get a good education.

He then addressed the need to expand facilities that provide quality, full-day pre-K education. Syracuse does not have enough facilities for all 3- and 4-year-olds to get quality pre-K education at the same time, he said.

Kozik concluded the list with a call for fairness in the funding system in New York state. He described a competitive grant that cities around New York state are vying for as he showed his frustration.

“There should be money available! There should be fairness available!” Kozik said, heated. “These are our children!”

Luchele Chisunka, co-chair of the Criminal Justice Task Force, urged state legislators to “raise the age” meaning raising the age of being tried as an adult from 16 to 18 years old in New York state.

New York and North Carolina are the only two states in the United States that try 16-year-olds as adults, she said.

New York state Senator David Valesky and New York state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter were in attendance and made a public commitment to raise the age. Chisunka said Onondaga County Sheriff Eugene Conway also made the commitment, but he was not in attendance.

Emily NaPier, ACTS vice president, made the afternoon’s final call to action. NaPier advocated for an end to putting minors in solitary confinement.

In an investigation done by ACTS, NaPier said the organization found 86 minors were collectively sentenced to more than seven years in solitary confinement in less than one year after the city of Syracuse moved incarcerated minors to a new facility.

“There are children sitting in the box 12 blocks from where we are right now,” NaPier said.

Like many other speakers, NaPier expressed how people of color are disproportionately negatively affected by the criminal justice system.

“Black and brown children will not be dehumanized by public officials who work for us,” NaPier said.

NaPier chanted, “Not on our watch!” and the room joined in soon after. The majority of the audience stood and chanted “Not on our watch!” as a rallying cry.

Published on October 30, 2016 at 11:21 pm

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