Latino Young Men and Boys in Search of Justice: Testimonies

by Frank de Jesús Acosta, Henry A. J. Ramos

Overview

In “Message to My Seventeen-Year-Old Self,” Roberto Martínez, a California Correctional inmate, writes that he wishes he would have taken school more seriously. “Prison ain’t anything like the thug life lies romanticize it to be; it doesn’t make you a man.” In this compelling collection of first-person testimonials—essays, poetry and letters—Latino men and boys who have been or are incarcerated write movingly about their past and future.

The book also incorporates essays by community advocates seeking criminal and juvenile justice system reform. Leaders of organizations including Barrios Unidos, Homeboy Industries, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice and National Compadres Network contribute pieces that address issues such as culture-based healing and violence prevention. Many use artistic expression as a form of healing, and this volume includes a wide variety of art, from poetry to drawings, tattoos and murals.

Acclaimed author and former gang member Luis J. Rodríguez writes in his foreword that the disproportionate number of young men of color in the justice system is rooted in economic, political and historical factors. He asserts that the United States’ punitive laws and practices—including three-strike laws, gang and gun enhancements, zero tolerance and school removals—have fueled a massive prison industrial complex, and ultimately, more gangs and violence.

With the publication of this collection of first-person testimony and articles by system reform advocates, editors Frank de Jesús Acosta and Henry A.J. Ramos seek to humanize disadvantaged Latino young men and call attention to the need for a restorative rather than punitive justice system. This volume confirms that—for both the Latino community and the country as a whole—the “school-to-prison pipeline” must be closed now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781518500350
Publisher:	Arte Publico Press
Publication date:	07/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

FRANK DE JESÚS ACOSTA is principal of Acosta & Associates, a California-based consulting group that specializes in professional support services for public and private social change ventures in the areas of children, youth and family services, violence prevention, community development and cultural fluency. He is the author of The History of Barrios Unidos (Arte Público Press, 2007).

HENRY A.J. RAMOS is president and CEO of Insight Center for Community Economic Development, a national economic policy think tank focused on promoting asset building and economic security in diverse, low-income communities. The founding editor of the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, he is the author of The American GI Forum: In Pursuit of the Dream, 1948-1983 (Arte Público Press, 1998).