Still boys, soon to be fathers – The Boston Globe

A recent Boston Globe Op-Ed featured a discussion with three young men who are part of Trinity Foundation’s Street Potential, a therapeutic group that engages high-risk youth through the arts.  Through quotes from these boys, you can see how growing up without a father has impacted them, as well as their hopes to be a role model for their children.

Still boys, soon to be fathers

By Tom Matlack June 18, 2010

I RECENTLY spoke with three fatherless teenage boys at Street Potential in Roxbury. The program was designed by Trinity Church in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services to help boys through the creation of visual art and hip-hop music. Two of the three boys have girlfriends who are pregnant.

■Who taught you how to be a man?

“I learned about manhood in the projects.’’

“[I learned] just manly stuff — how to beat people up, like . . . get money to bring home any way you have to. Because honestly, when my father left, I said, I’m always going to be looking for a father figure. He didn’t leave all my life . . . until this day, still like once a month. ‘Ooh, I see my father fight this dude. That must be manly.’ So it’s what it takes to be a man. Yeah.’’

“I learned from personal experiences . . . and that doesn’t make you a man because you’re going to end up being locked up. And I want to be there for my son, and if I’m in jail, he ain’t going to look at me like a man.’’

NY Governor Seeks Juvenile Justice Reform

Following reports about major problems in New York’s juvenile justice system, Governor Paterson is proposing changes, including reducing the number of youth in state custody and establishing greater oversight for the juvenile facilities.  The New York Times provided coverage yesterday in its “City Room” blog:

Paterson Proposes Juvenile Justice Overhaul

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Gov. David A. Paterson introduced legislation on Wednesday to begin overhauling New York’s troubled juvenile prison system, in what aides described at a first step toward broader changes long sought by critics of the system.

The legislation would prohibit judges from placing youths in state juvenile prisons unless they had been found guilty of a violent felony or a sex crime or a judge had determined that a youth posed a significant risk to themselves or others. Such a move would set the stage to significantly shrink the number of youths in state custody.