A 15-year-old black girl in Michigan who has been incarcerated since mid-May after she was unable to do her schoolwork online will not return home, a judge decided Monday, in a case that has fueled outrage that she is iconic. from Systemic Racism and the Criminalization of Black Children.
Oakland County Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, the chief justice of the court’s Family Division, found that the girl has benefited from a residential treatment program in a juvenile detention center, but is not yet ready to be with his mother. Brennan has scheduled another hearing for September, reported NBC affiliate WDIV.
The girl, who is being identified only by her middle name, Grace, was the subject of a report released last week by ProPublica Illinois, with politicians and community activists expressing outrage at her incarceration.
During a three-hour procedure, Brennan told Grace that it was in her best interest to stay on the show after all the progress she had been making.
“Give yourself a chance to go on and finish something,” Brennan said, according to the Detroit News. “The right thing is for you and your mother to be apart for now.”
Grace, however, told the judge that she wanted to go home: “I miss my mother. I can control myself. I can be obedient.”
After the hearing, a family attorney, Jonathan Biernat, confirmed that Grace has done well on the show, but the “fight for her release” continues. She could not be immediately reached for further comment.
Last school year, Grace was a sophomore at Groves High School in Birmingham Public Schools, which is 79 percent white, according to data from the school district.
In recent days, parents and students in the Detroit suburbs have protested in support of the release of Grace from Children’s Village in Oakland County, the detention center where she was detained amid the coronavirus pandemic.
At Monday’s hearing, Brennan emphasized that police had responded to incidents between the mother and daughter three times, and that Grace’s arrest was the result of that, the Detroit News reported.
“She was not detained because she did not turn in her homework,” said Brennan. “She was detained because she was a threat to her mother.”
Brennan also addressed the scrutiny of the case.
“My role is to make decisions that are in the best interest of this young woman, period,” said Brennan. “I swore an oath that I would not be swayed by public outcry or fear of criticism.”
Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, is one of the people who has questioned whether race was a factor in stopping Grace. Black youth in Michigan are four times more likely to be detained or committed than white youth, according to 2015 data analyzed by the nonprofit Sentencing Project.
“If it was a young white man, I really wonder if the judge would have done this,” Dingell said on MSNBC Monday. “Putting a young person in a confined area in the middle of COVID is not the answer.”
On Thursday, the Michigan Supreme Court said it would review the circumstances surrounding Grace’s arrest.
Her case not only addresses the issue of racial bias within the criminal justice system, but is also intertwined with larger concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in juvenile detention centers, as well as how children with learning disabilities see themselves. unevenly affected during the pandemic. result of home schooling.
According to ProPublica, Grace has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and receives special education services.
The girl and her mother, identified as Charisse, had episodes of conflict. In 2018, Grace was placed in a court diversion program for “incorrigibility,” but was released early, Charisse told ProPublica.
In November, an assault charge was filed against Grace after police were called to an incident in which the mother said Grace became violent because she was upset that she was unable to go to a friend’s house. Weeks later, according to ProPublica, Grace was charged with theft after she was caught on surveillance video stealing another student’s cell phone from a school locker room. The phone was later returned.
Virtually a juvenile court hearing was held in April, and a social worker told the judge that Grace should receive mental health and anger management treatment in a residential facility; the prosecutor agreed. A court-appointed lawyer requested parole for Grace because she had had no more problems since November and because of COVID-19 concerns in detention centers, ProPublica reported.
“My mother and I are working every day to improve ourselves and our relationship, and I think moving my house would be an intrusion into our progress,” said Grace at the time, according to ProPublica.
Brennan sentenced Grace to “intensive probation,” with various requirements, such as staying home, consulting with a social worker, not using the phone, and completing homework. But the girl was unable to focus properly while learning from home, and told a new social worker in April that she was anxious about parole and overwhelmed.
After her caseworker found out that she had fallen asleep one day and was unable to do her homework, a hearing was held in May and the judge decided that she had violated the terms of her probation.
ProPublica noted that Grace’s teacher had told the social worker in an email that Grace “was not out of alignment with most of my other students,” and that her approach to it was “it was no one’s fault because we didn’t see this coming.” unprecedented global pandemic. “
Grace received the juvenile arrest warrant because she was considered a “threat to the community since the original charge was assault and robbery,” according to court records.
Grace’s supporters say the court’s decision to jail her simply underscores racial disparities even in the youth system. According to ProPublica, from January 2016 to June 2020, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to the Oakland County Circuit Court. About 42 percent involved black youth, although the county’s population is approximately 15 percent.
Tylene Henry, who has a teenage son in the local school district and was among several supporters outside of court on Monday, said she does not know Grace, but her situation “opened my eyes to the prison problem to the pipeline.” “
Henry said she supports Grace’s release and a broader overhaul of the youth system.
“There are a lot of students like Grace. They are brought into the criminal justice system as children instead of getting the help they really need,” he said. “Why do mental health and mental health treatments have to cost being held in a detention center?”
