Free the YoutH

Episode 0: Check-In provides an introduction to The Final 5 Campaign and Free The Youth. Learn about our campaign priorities and an overview of the podcast series.

credits

Co-Hosts: Sherrif Da Greatest and AnnMarie Brown

Production Team: AnnMarie Brown, Malika Anthony, Marlee Rich, Nicole Negrete, Shayne.Khaalvin, and Sherrif Da Greatest

Invocation: Collision written and read by Sherrif Da Greatest

Original Music: Shayne.Khaalvin; IG: @shayne.khaalvinmusic

Other Music: Kaba Studios and Aced Spade

Producer: Ariel Mejia

Consultation and Guidance: Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger of AirGo Radio

Podcast Art: Brian Herrera; IG: @brianherrera.art

Special thanks to Circles & Ciphers and the Children & Family Justice Center at the Northwestern Bluhm Legal Clinic

transcript

Sherrif: what is like to be incarcerated in, for those who aren't. Waking up to here, I see your voice telling you to get out of bed. Having to eat breakfast at 3:00 AM lunch at 10:30 AM dinner at 6:00 PM. Mandatory to wear D.O.C. clothing, just to show you are the property, its getting told to spend a hundred dollars on commissary, having to put a request slip in just to be seen by a doctor or dentist, wait for doctors or dentist to be seen a month or two later, having to talk to our loved ones on the phone while our phone's being recorded, it's having a little privilege being a worker to stay out and clean.

It's getting paid no more than $10 a week to clean up after men on our team, not able to have access to the gym rec, work, workout tools, having to be isolated from music, not able to have contact visit with family, having to see family through glass with bunch of other people, like me, talking at the same place.

Being convicted of something, knowing you not guilty, yet innocent til proven psychology is guilty til proven innocent, its receiving mail and being open. When I get it. It’s having a good sleep and waking up to flushes, that sounded like bang, bang noise. Having to put covers over my face or turning your head till he or she is finished.

Can't shit without worrying about catching a bump on your ass. It's having to be out for five hours and then locking right back up when second shift is finished, it's getting you used to a routine you can't control, worrying about a ticket, no telling if it's contraband or not. It's having to know how to break a law within a jail and dealing with the consequences, it's having your property and room get searched, randomly having food confiscated.

 (intro music) 

Sherrif: Welcome everybody to, “Free The Youth” podcast brought to you by Final Five Campaign. The Final Five Campaign is focused on closing the five remaining youth prisons in Illinois. My name is Sherrif Da Greatest, I am one of  the hosts of the Free The Youth podcast and I’m also with -.

AnnMarie: Hey everybody. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We're excited to have you all. My name is AnnMarie. I am one of the guests co-hosts for Free The Youth podcast and we will kick it off with a check in. Usually we check in just to see how people are, the point is to see where people are and how they are feeling. And with that being said ill. Slide it to you Riff. 

Sherrif: So basically for our check-in. We're going to do a rose and a thorn, doing a rose is something that's positive. And, a thorn is something that's challenging. Could be anything throughout your week, your month, your day. and yeah, I'll kick us off my thorn is next week, which will be January 19th. it's one of the guys that passed away its his day of passing and a rose to that. I am luckily, shout out to Chicago bond fund, I was given two days a week, for movement and with this rose, the day of his passing will be in line with my movement, which will be on a Wednesday. So that's my rose.

What about you? 

AnnMarie: So thanks to you. That's beautiful. Man my rose is, It's a Friday. I like Fridays it's close to the weekend. So I can chill, you know, rest and recuperate.  also a Rose is, we recording a podcast, this is super exciting, super, super exciting, a thorn. I don't know. I don't necessarily have any like thorns.

Um, I think life is okay right now. You know, life is good. I'm very, very, grounded. I feel at peace, I feel happy and I feel healthy. So I don't want to create a, you know, negative energy if I don't, if I don't feel like I have it right now. So I'm gonna just say rose, um, thorn, I don't have one. But, yeah.

Thank you for letting me check in Riff and thank you for checking in. Uh, now we'll kind of move into more about the Final Five Campaign, the purpose of the campaign and kind of what we do. Just to reiterate again, the Final Five Campaign is focused on closing the five remaining youth prisons in Illinois.

We have a few goals that we look at, to kind of guide us through the campaign and the goals are the following. First we want to close the five remaining Illinois youth prisons within the next two years. The two largest facilities currently are St. Charles and Harrisburg  and we hope to close those prisons as well as other facilities.

The second one would be just to reinvest. So reinvest in cities and counties that send the most youth to DJJ facilities through community direct prevention and re-entry resources. So the next one we have is just to inform, to inform of the public about youth incarceration, what it looks like, what our youth are actually going through?

 and then alternative methods as well for addressing harm, and also giving people an idea of other systems, that are connected to the criminal justice system and how that plays a role in youth incarceration as a whole and so the next one after that is just it's to re-imagine.

So really reimagine what a different system will look like for our young people, through a process that's restorative and transformative and not like what we have now. and the last one really is just to really center youth that are the most impacted. So we really want to focus on centering, formerly incarcerated youth and other people that are impacted, with youth incarceration, including advocates that have worked in it.

Families that have young people that are incarcerated, young people in general that have been incarcerated  and folks that have just been coming along with us on a ride, you know, to really transform a system, the youth prison system. And so really, I know oftentimes people have, you know, people that are not directly impacted by.

A young person that they know that have been incarcerated or a young person,  in general that has been incarcerated. I know a lot of times people have this idea that, okay, this doesn't impact me because it's not in my reach, but it's much deeper than that. And we have to really understand that as a community, we are responsible, because the young people that are coming up, You know, are the next generation. And so they'll be, they'll be leading, leading the world. and we have to do our part and mission that making sure they feel protected, make sure they feel protected, they feel supported. and that they have all the necessities and the resources they need to be able to, you know, be whoever they are, be whatever they want to be.

I think beyond that indirectly,  we all pay taxes and that's the way that we're all connected. We all pay taxes that actually paid for a lot of these facilities to stay open. A lot of these facilities are in our communities. They think of, St. Charles youth prison, that's in St. Charles. and so these are facilities are in our communities and impact our youth.

And so it impacts us,  it is important that,overall we care, we give compassion and we give empathy to this cause. And,you know, we, we have to protect our youth, like I said. And so Free The Youth podcast, hopefully, we'll do our due diligence, just educating the community and, giving folks the knowledge and the recipe and the resources they need to help us along the fight. So with that being said, I will also pass it back to Riff, so you could talk about, you know, more about your experience and how you got involved with the campaign.

Sherrif:  True, I appreciate that, I definitely got to still throw it out there. You know what I'm saying? My name is definitely Sherrif Da Greatest. You know what I'm saying? And it's not spelled with T H E spell it with D A who am I? I am only me. And am only I,  who have a heart for peoples opinions. And I am the sixth child of 11 siblings, where  both parents are part in the family and both was, one was Booksmart, other one was street smart.

I became part of the system when I was like 15, in high school because of fighting, being charged for reckless conduct. I spent six months in my juvenile, my 12th year in high school, even experiencing the abult jail at 18, and even still now being looked at by my past. I am just a brother that's trying to make a way for my peoples, to people's except for the difference. Why does this issue impact me. It's definitely because I have loved ones that is and been incarcerated to juvenile and adult system.

And, by being by those be my loved ones, it leaves a mark of a scar you know what im saying, cannot nothing explain the pain When a loved one leaves your, your presence, and its being unexplained besides by family members telling you, what is this like or why is why it's happening?

But the question mark leaves the system because the system doesn't explain, besides them taking away, what's to them- If they're saying that you with theirs and in reality, they is ours. Um, and that's my loved ones. That's why in impact us 

AnnMarie: Yeah, I resonate. I resonate deeply and I'm definitely, haven't had a lot of people in my life who have been . You know, uprooted from, from my life by the system and has caused a lot of harm, definitely has caused a lot of harm, for not only myself, but people around them, their kids and family.

So I definitely resonate with, and thank you for sharing.  I guess I can talk a little bit more about, you know, why I got into the campaign and my experience.  Currently I work with Circles and Ciphers, Circles and Ciphers Restorative Justice Organization, based in Rogers park that, focuses on using, the methods of hip hop and restorative justice principles, such as peace circles, to be able to create safe spaces and opportunities for young people,  in the Chicago community.

And so, in working with Circle and Ciphers. I got the beautiful opportunity to work at St. Charles youth prison. It was Me, My brother's Marco and Mark  came and we went in there. We did what's called freestyle circles. Freestyle circle, is a peace circle mixed with,the art of freestyle.

 and basically we use that, to be able to create a safe space for youth to be able to communicate and freestyle.Off, off the dome for those that don't know what freestyling is, so its just wrapping off the dome, which I'm not that great at, but, in going in there, it taught me a lot.

Regardless. I was able to develop a program for young people inside St. Charles and just being inside there going every week, we would drive up there to St. Charles. And, uh, we would have to go through that process where we didn't have no, we couldn't have no phones or nothing. We had to put that, lock it up and, you know, go inside and, you know, even walking inside.

You know, and seeing how it looked, it was disheartening. You know, it was definitely disheartening to see,  the environment,a lot of abandoned buildings,  that aren't being used.It just, yeah, the energy in house, the energy in this space was it was the best. So we would, we would have programming with, You know, about eight to 10, eight to 15. Sometimes it got big sometimes like 15, 16 young people in one circle and we would just hold our circles. And I think through that circle, man, I heard so many beautiful stories, you know, stories of, you know, young, young, young man, you know, young men of color and just, you know, about their life and things they're gone through.

And I think it was beautiful and it was one of the best experiences of my life because I really got that. Sit in a space for young people who are just human, you know, who are just human,  you know, experienced different things in their life experience have experiences that range from pain to happiness, to love, to joy, to hope, to fear.

and within all those conversations, I really got to know amazing, amazing young people and,  I think every time I left, I felt, you know, grateful. I really felt grateful because we were building like a little community, you know? And I think just being able to go there, it was able to offer some sort of moment of, you know, freedom for them, to be able to create.

And so after I will leave, it just was this disheartening feeling. Cause I'm like, man, these amazing human. You know are, in this, in this place and nobody understands him, you know what I mean? It's like these people inside, they don't understand these people that are working to keep them in here. Don't understand.

And then for, and for me it was just, it's just disheartening, you know? So I think a lot of my motivation comes from, you know, my experiences with people working with young people, who have been taken by the system and the system, is not always just, you know, my own life and young people that I have. You know, now a responsibility to, um, you know, make a better way,  make a better way and try to disrupt and, abolish this system.

So I think that's more of my experience and, I hope, you know, this podcast will be, you know, part of that 

Sherrif: If you want to check out, as of when I was incarcerated into Monaco, we made a book. And the book was issued by shout out to them. It was similar more book memoir book of my life and my journey, and it is called the collision. Um, to check that out, um, look up, I S S U U.Com slash C H I P R O J E C T slash doc slash S H E R R. I F that ID, if you was there to look up one, to look up my book that I made in my journey, and also check out my other book that I'm also am writing. when I was locked up as well. this is my blog, um, is S H E R R I F P O L k.com. On that blog.

I have a few chapters that's been written while I was incarcerated. Shout out to the people, my support, that edited, and also the uploaded on my blog and my book Won't be dropped soon, but it will be dropped soon. So stay in tune.

So what's to come for the podcast episodes. We'll be definitely have different co-hosts and guests. and me, as its been said, we'll be guiding us to episode zero and six format. 

 With episode zero,  we'll be giving you. The intro to the campaign and goals of the podcast. And for episode one, we talk about home and within home,  were thinking about DCFS to, have a conversation about, and caregivers. episode two is community and within community, we speak about RJ, which is restorative justice in episode three,

We have city, and that is pretty much of policing in people that experienced the PO with their policing, episode four, we have county, and within the county, we have youth shows in different counties and connections to youth prisons. Episode five, we have state and with state We'll have a podcast special to about gov Pritzker on why these prisons need to be closed.

Episode six, since three years, final five, we have to add additional, You know what I'm saying? We're thinking about episode six, which is going to pretty much give you the recap of all the episodes and how can,  how, how you can help close the remaining youth prisons. And, how can you support the Final Five Campaign?

You know what I'm saying? Shout out to, Finale Five. We're going to definitely need you to support us to our social media. With our Instagram. It is the final five campaign. It is at T H E. F I N A L the number five, then you have C A M P A I G N. Best start Instagram, the final five campaign. 

Then we have our twitter and it's the same thing, but pretty much, instead of the, it will be :final five campaign” and check out our website to the final five campaign.com 

and for our checkout please don't forget, you know what I'm saying? If you do have a check-in, this is, this was our check-in a rose and a thorn, and please drop in your rose and thorn for the day as you listen to our podcast. and then not for olur check out what is the motivation quote you want to say to someone?

Um, and for my motivation quote,, mine was to give faith, you have to have faith as by Sherrif Da Greatest is not with T-H-E, but with D-A

AnnMarie: and I'll take it up. I'll take care of it Riff. Thank you. I appreciate you. And for my final checkout quote, its one of my favorite quotes that I live by and it's, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none, but ourselves can figure our mind”, and that quote is originally by Marcus Garvey, but also, reiterated by the great Bob Marley.

Again, thank you for checking us out. Uh, next up will be episode one, like Riff said episode one, we'll highlight DCFS and this connection to the, to youth prisons. And so with that being said, thank you all again for listening and, shout you out again, Sherrif Sherrif Da Greatest again, I'm AnnMarie and, I'll see y’all and please stay in tune.