‘We have a problem.’ Black children in Miami-Dade over-represented in youth arrests

A collection of experts, elected officials and police joined together Thursday evening at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens to share some troubling data regarding youth arrests.

The stat: between 2010-2022, Black children accounted for more than half of youth arrests despite representing roughly 17% of the population.

“When you look at the data and half of the kids that are being locked up are Black, we have a problem,” Fedrick Ingram, a Miami native and secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, said at “The School-to Prison Pipeline Symposium: An Examination of Youth Arrest Patterns and Practices in Miami-Dade County.”

Through presentations about the data and solutions, an audience of more than 100 people learned a little more about a problem affecting Miami-Dade County, home to the third largest public school district in the country. The research came courtesy of a Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust-commissioned study conducted by the University of Miami. Although analysts found the overall number of youth arrests have decreased 76% since 2010, a huge disparity exists that needs to be addressed.

“Interventions aimed at reducing arrests of youth don’t really address overrepresentation of Black youth,” said Todd Warner, a lecturer at UM and one of the researchers who conducted the study with data from Miami-Dade’s Juvenile Services Department.

Plenty of solutions were offered throughout the forum that lasted more than three hours. Acknowledging the existence of a system “that’s designed to lock them up,” Ingram pointed to increased community involvement – from the family to churches to nonprofit – as a solution. Others, like MDEAT youth services coordinator Jordan Pate-Garrett and MDCPS mental health services director Rhea Lee, advocated for counselors who are better equipped to handle the needs of Black children.

“We want to make sure that what we’re pushing for is something that can close the cultural gaps in our school system and in our communities to ensure that the individuals providing these services are competent,” Pate-Garrett said.

Another suggestion came from Derek Negron, MDCPS administrative director for the division of academic support. A proponent of early childhood learning, Negron discussed the link between education and crime. He specifically cited a 22-year Economic Opportunity Institute study that found children who failed to participate in a Chicago government-funded preschool program were “70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18.” Negron’s inference: kindergarten shouldn’t be the first time a child has picked up a book.

“If a child is showing up to learn how to read in kindergarten, they are significantly behind,” Negron said. “And as we’ve seen, once you’re behind, it takes a very strong effort with strong teachers in a row to help you to close that gap.”

With the information now in the hands of the community, the onus now falls on them and the people in power, of whom there were quite a few in attendance including a few members of the Miami Gardens city council, Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma Noel-Pratt and MDCPS board member Steve Gallon III. Everyone was offered a pamphlet that listed policy recommendations ranging from the creation of a universal public option for early learning to the establishment of a permanent criminal justice disparities task force. As Gallon told the crowd, the next step must be policy changes to ensure these disparities come to an end.

“Policy drives practices, not the other way around,” Gallon said. “Practices are episodic: they change in and out with who comes into leadership and who goes out. But policies, laws and statues remain the same.”