‘Navigators’ Guide Chicago Youth Away From Carjacking

A youth mentoring program in Chicago has set its sights on reducing the number of young people involved in carjacking, reports National Public Radio. The program, using tactics similar to those used by violence interrupters to stop juvenile gun crime, provides intensive one-to-one counseling for young people involved in the justice system, linking them to mentors or so-called navigators. “We meet them where they at,” one mentor, Derrick Orr, 48, told NPR’s Cheryl Corley. “We let them know some of our story and why we want to help you and how we can help you because we’ve been down that path. But also we don’t glorify that in no sense. “

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says such programs are keys to rebuilding a safety net that was shredded during a pandemic that’s disrupted lives, slowed down court systems and structured youth programs.

Officials say the number of carjackings has declined by 20 percent since last year, partly thanks to a regional hijacking task force, but they remain worried that young people are over-represented as offenders.

More than half of the carjacking arrests have been people under 18 years old. “A  lot of them get brainwashed by people on the streets,” says community activist Martin Anguiano. who coordinates community intervention programs for the organization BUILD Inc “Our job is to provide alternatives to the streets.”

In other programs, the County juvenile probation office is  directing all young people on electronic monitoring to report to one of five community-based social service agencies that are contracted by the county. And Chicago Public Schools officials are about to launch a new project to target students who are failing to turn up at school with intense outreach, reports The Chicago Tribune.

The recent surge in gun violence, including carjackings, has led to increased calls for a more punitive response for offenders in general.

But those working in the system strongly caution that juveniles need to remain a special consideration in the criminal justice system, stressing that brain research does not support a return to punitive responses, which were deployed years ago to address violence,

Activists  argue its important to remember that before they were a shooter or a carjacker, they were likely some combination of hungry and poor and traumatized by the violence happening on the blocks where they are supposed to thrive.

“A lot of people just look at the crime itself and they never ask themselves, ‘How did this young person wind up at this place in his life?’” community activist and artist Adolfo Davis, 45, told the Tribune.

“Like myself, I come from an unstable home. I had went to the streets to take care of myself. I didn’t start off in a gang. Being in the street, and being used by other people, ya’ll become friends. And it leads to one thing to another.”