How second chances and support at this Dallas cafe can discourage juvenile recidivism

When JeDarrian Jones was released from the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center at the age of 15, he had spent a month and a half in jail for robbery and drug trafficking – crimes he committed because he needed the money. His probation officer made a suggestion: get a job at Cafe Momentum.

Like other social ventures that focus on helping those previously incarcerated, Cafe Momentum in Dallas provides paid work for young people looking to start over. But it also includes multiple forms of support – education, basic services, and hands-on skills – that are keys to staying out of the system but difficult to find at home for many teens.

An estimated 2.1 million young people under the age of 18 are arrested in the United States in a single year. Although national figures are not available on juvenile recidivism rates, a 2015 report by the CSG Justice Center found that juveniles were much more likely to commit a different crime than adults after incarceration.

That seems to be true of younger people in the criminal justice system in general. Detainees aged 24 or under who were released in 2012 were most likely to be arrested again within five years of their release, according to the Justice Department released in July. Eighty-one percent of those screened in 34 states were arrested within five years of release, compared with 75 percent of those 25 to 39 and 61 percent of those aged 40 and over.

“The juvenile justice field has more fads than knowledge, and I’m not sure we need any more fads.”

Early detention reduces the chances of a teenager graduating from high school or escaping the justice system as an adult. A 2013 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed 10-year data from over 34,000 minors tried in a juvenile court in Chicago. The study found that those jailed as teenagers were 39 percent less likely to graduate from high school and 41 percent more likely than other public school students to graduate from adult prison by age 25 same neighborhood.

But there is no single solution or “quick fix” to preventing relapse in teenagers.

“The juvenile justice field has more fads than insights, and I’m not sure we need more fads,” said Ed Mulvey, a retired professor of psychiatry from the University of Pittsburgh who has studied how adolescents are getting out of the justice system can. “Because the idea, ‘Well, if we could just get them a job, that would do it’ or ‘Well, their families are all screwed up, just get them out of this family,’ doesn’t work. If it were that easy, we would have found out long ago. ”

Café Momentum is one of the few programs that looks at the bigger picture. The downtown Dallas restaurant offers 12-month paid internship for teenagers aged 15-19 who are leaving the youth facility. Participants learn to manage all aspects of the operation – reception, cooking, waiting tables and sales. And while the relapse rate in the state of Texas is 48.3 percent, the rate among Café Momentum attendees is 15.2 percent.

When minors leave detention, they are usually still dependent on their parents or guardians, which means they have less control than adults in making their own decisions.

SEE: How arts and culinary arts in Dallas help juvenile offenders avoid jail

“Teenagers are less independent and may return straight to the same environment that was initially problematic,” said Luke Hyde, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. “Adults have more autonomy.”

To address this challenge, Café Momentum’s program goes beyond the workplace and provides teenagers with a safe environment to turn to after they are laid off.

“Humans are influenced 24 hours a day,” Chad Houser, founder of Café Momentum, told PBS NewsHour. “If our influence were limited to the six to eight hours that … [our teenagers] have worked, then they will be influenced from outside for the other 16 to 18 hours. “

A lounge in the Café Momentum building provides participants with a place to hang out with each other and with Café Momentum staff, and offers activities such as yoga and a book club. The organization also offers apparel, body and feminine hygiene products, and baby care products.

“We realized that if we could create a physical space where they could do the programming at other hours, outside of the restaurant work, then we could make the difference and become the dominant influence,” said Houser.

Café Momentum now has a case management team of social workers handling basic urgent needs such as housing, health care, food insecurity and legal assistance. There is a Career Services coordinator who teaches financial literacy, budgeting, resumes, and job interviews. Teens can also get sexual resources and complete their high school diploma through Cafe Momentum High School, which is across the street from the restaurant and is run by their education manager.

“As we build this ecosystem of support around our young people, part of that ecosystem is helping them build a foundation for the rest of their lives,” said Houser.

During his internship, Jones got into an argument in his community and was shot in the shoulder. He was concerned that his mentors at Café Momentum would find out about this because he feared they would disapprove of it. Instead, everyone in his Café Momentum community came to his home when he was released from the hospital and surrounded him with support.

“I felt really loved and from then on I knew this place was my home,” said Jones. “I knew this was my family because they had my back no matter what.”

The fact that an adolescent’s brain is still developing can increase the challenges of combating relapse, according to Kenneth Dodge, William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. But it also leaves room for optimism.

“I knew this was my family because they had my back no matter what.”

“Teenagers’ brains are changing and still developing,” said Dodge, who studies the development and prevention of aggressive behavior in minors. “It’s impulsive and doesn’t have a lot of self-control braking mechanisms. The good news is that adolescents are able to be shaped and changed and habilitated, and that seems to be more so than when people are adults. ”

Houser said he found that the best approach to dealing with teenagers’ naturally elevated hormones and emotions is to treat each person to a standard of no-rating.

“Teens lack emotions, immaturity, and hormone waves that are a first feeling so they don’t know how to deal with it,” said Houser. “We work with children from families who have been marginalized over several generations. If these children have suffered trauma all their lives, it is normal for them, and when you say to them, ‘This is not normal,’ they ask, ‘Why are you judging me?’ ”

In 2020, Café Momentum teamed up with the Stand Together Foundation to eventually expand their model to more communities across the country. They opened two new restaurants in Nashville and Pittsburgh in 2021, with a plan to reach 10 wards in five years and 50 wards in 25 years.

After completing his 12 month internship, Jones worked at two other restaurants in Dallas before returning to Cafe Momentum as a restaurant manager, helping teenagers in the same situation he had just started out in.

“Café Momentum changed my life,” said Jones. “I was in a difficult position. I had just come out of adolescence and wanted to do the same thing before I went into adolescence. But when I came to Café Momentum, I had people on my team who really took care of me and my circumstances. ”

[ad_1]