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.

Right now Da FORCE is advocating for Senate Bill 940 “An Act to Improve Juvenile Justice Data Collection.” We’ve created a sign-on letter and are trying to gather as many signatures as possible to pressure lawmakers to recognize the urgent need for mandated data collection from every agency of the juvenile justice system. Please check out Senate Bill 940 and the letter for the top 4 reasons to support the bill. If you are part of an organization that works with youth or the juvenile justice system we would love to have you support. If you’d like to sign-on, please email your name, organization name, address, email address, and phone number to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you'd like to print and send in your own letters: 

PUT THE CURRENT DATE HERE

Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security
State House Room 167 (House)/Room 507 (Senate)
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security:

The Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Task Force on Racial Disparities, Citizens for Juvenile Justice, City School, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Project HIP-HOP, Reflect and Strengthen, and a broad spectrum of other organizations and individuals from across the Commonwealth urge you to support An Act to Improve Juvenile Justice Data Collection (Senate No. 940). Sponsored by Senators Creem, Spilka, and Tucker, and Representatives Campbell, Khan, Smizik, Story, and Walz, this bill would require all agencies involved in juvenile justice to report non-identifiable statistical information about the age, gender, race/ethnicity, and charging offense of juveniles with whom they have contact.  This bill deserves your support for the following reasons:

1.    Complete and accurate data is necessary to ensure that the (ever-shrinking) public resources allocated to the juvenile justice system are invested wisely. Right now, policy-makers, government agencies, service providers – and taxpayers – do not have the information about youth in the juvenile justice system that they need to determine if programs are working, target high priority needs, or spot trends in juvenile crime.  Massachusetts does not collect data that would enable it to answer such fundamental questions as: How many youth are arrested each year? What types of crimes are youth committing?  Which youths are placed on probation and what are their outcomes?

2.    Racial inequalities are a national issue in juvenile justice, yet Massachusetts lacks the information necessary to tackle this important problem.  We know that youth of color are disproportionately represented at all points of the juvenile justice system around the country, and the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) mandates that all states work to identify and address racial and ethnic disparities.  Without statistical data, Massachusetts cannot even begin to identify problem areas or develop solutions to racial inequalities.

3.    Massachusetts’ failure to collect comprehensive data at key decision points in the juvenile justice system risks the loss of federal funds.  The federal JJDPA mandates that states report information on Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) and take steps to address it.  By failing to collect and report data on the race and ethnicity of youth at each step in the system, Massachusetts risks losing important federal funds for juvenile crime prevention programs.

4.    The lack of data is hurting youth and the programs that serve them.  Providers who serve system-involved youth are unable to demonstrate the positive impact their programming has on young people or to make rational adjustments to those programs without data.  Lack of data has become a barrier to attracting private foundation support for juvenile justice programming such as sustainable alternatives to detention in Massachusetts.

An Act to Improve Juvenile Justice Data Collection is essential to a fair and effective juvenile justice system – and will contribute to both public safety and fiscal responsibility.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[INSERT YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER]
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