Who We Are

We are  a group of community stakeholders who have come together to demand unprecedented transparency and accountability from the juvenile justice system whose racist policies and practices have devastating outcomes for youth in our state. We are organizing for fair treatment of all youth and less reliance on detention in our state. With training and support from CJNY, Da FORCE has been meeting regularly for over a year.

What We Do

Da FORCE is focusing on two main goals at this time.

•    Education: We are committed to exposing the racism of the juvenile justice system to youth and families in our communities. Da FORCE has built on curriculum created by CJNY and made it fit the realities of Massachusetts. We offer workshops on myths and facts about the system, history of the juvenile justice system, navigating the system, and the importance of data collection to create real change. We hope that through popular education, we can build a base of people who are armed with knowledge and strategies to take on the system.  

•    Data Collection: Data is the key to creating positive, measurable change in the juvenile justice system. Right now, the state of MA doesn’t even know how many youth were arrested last year. What we do know is youth of color make up 20% of the state population but 60% of population in juvenile detention.  We demand mandated data collection and reporting at every decision point of the justice system so that we can attack racial disparities everywhere they are happening. These are our youth trapped in a system that we pay for. This data belongs to the people, and we will use it to identify policies that are harming youth or color and fight to change them.