African American Juvenile Justice Project

 

Since 2007, improving the way people have access to the law.

 

We Transfer Knowledge and Transform Lives

​

Over the last 50 years, millions of babies were aborted in the United States.  Read AAJJP's statement about the Dobbs decision and its impact upon the Black community.  

 

Founded in 2007, the African American Juvenile Justice Project is a program that focuses on community accountability and responsibility, youth leadership and legislative initiatives for juvenile justice transformation. ​AAJJP recognizes that Black children in America leak or SEEP (Systemic. Endemic. Epidemic. Pandemic) through holes of racism, sexism, classism and capitalism. 

 

Since 2007, we were the first of its kind to operate a program and service at the National, Regional, and Local level with a primary focus on African American Juvenile Justice.  In 2022, we continue our work on racial equality in juvenile justice and our advocacy for a just juvenile legal system.  Independent, AAJJP has never received any federal, state, public or private grant funding, fellowships or awards. 

​

The mission of the African American Juvenile Justice Project (AAJJP) is to provide programs and services for social justice, which engage the African American community, the school system, and the child welfare and juvenile justice system. AAJJP works to improve juveniles' HEMS [Healthcare, Housing, Education, Employment, Maintenance and Support Services], which are adversely impacted by the poverty, school dropout and prison pipelines.

​

AAJJP developed a unique and one-of-a-kind system to address the needs of children by using the home, school, and community model.  We call it the Power of the Ps, which includes Parents, Pastors, Principals, Psychologist, Physicians, Pharmaceutical, Politicians, Press, Police, Prosecutors and Prison.  Each of these Ps are directly or indirectly responsible for the lives of African American children.  

​

For more than a decade we continue to advocate to Raise the Age of juvenile court jurisdiction to 17 and recognize that Wisconsin, Texas and Georgia, are among three states treating all 17-year-olds as adults.  California barred anyone under 16 from being prosecuted in adult court.  Raise The Age Platform.

​​

AAJJP also recognizes that African Americans cannot live in excuses, denial, and justification by failing to resolve its own problems, which result in the deprivation and delinquency of its children.​ Hence, we advocate for JUST US [Juvenile Urban Sex Trafficking in the United States], 17Ps and #FemaleNOTFeemale platforms to address the impact of missing and exploited, AIDS and sex trafficking of young women and children. 

​

Advocacy/Legislative Initiatives:

​

Jones v. Mississippi, No 18-1259 

AAJJP Amicus Brief before the United States Supreme Court via Mayer Brown firm. 

Question: Does the 8th Amendment require a sentencing authority to find that a juvenile is permanently incorrigible before it may impose a sentence of life without the possibility of parole?

 

The CROWN Act

Prohibits discrimination against African American children because of their chosen hairstyle. 

CROWN Act - Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2019 Act (HR 5309)

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5309

​

Justice for Juveniles Act (HR 5053) R. 5053

To exempt juveniles from the requirements for suits by prisoners, and for other purposes 

​

Today, we remain the leading forefront platform for African American children who face a duality of socialization in our society, which is also characterized by institutionalized and systemic racism and untenable obstacles.  Education + Employment + Economics = Empowerment.  Together, we can change the plights that hinder growth and development of children.

​

While we are a race-specific program, we encourage participation from all persons (allies) of concern and we will assist other groups in need of race specific programs and services.  We are nonpartisan and nonsectarian, because the fight to end the inherent harms and oppression of race and class leading to discrimination and disparity knows no political or religious boundaries.