By Tenaya Jones and Kandy “K.I.” Ifopo
We know firsthand that incarceration is harmful to youth, with consequences that can last a lifetime. Yet, for far too long, San Francisco has relied on cages instead of care and community for young people like us. Research shows that putting young people behind bars doesn’t make communities safer — it does just the opposite. A recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University found that incarcerating young people increased the likelihood they would go to jail as adults by 23% — in fact, time in “juvie” is the single largest predictor of future offense.