The Southern Poverty Law Center Thursday formally announced the formation of the Jacksonville Juvenile Justice Coalition.
David Utter, policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Florida office, says his organization is also working with two other communities with high rates of juvenile incarceration.
“Tampa sends more kids to the adult system than any other county," he said.
"Jacksonville’s got this incredibly disproportionate rate of sending kids to the adult system and Escambia actually sends more kids per capita than Jacksonville does, they’re just not one of the top ten most populous counties.”
According to Utter, of the 58,000 juveniles arrested in Florida last year, 2,700 were in Jacksonville, and of those more than 1,400 of them were for minor offenses.
The local advocacy organization has a lot of support in the Jacksonville community, including State Sen. Audrey Gibson and Mad Dads to the Urban League and the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center.
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