Kirkland Helps Minors Shake Adult Time Over Jail Scuffles
Jaylan Banks and Sylvester Williams were nearing the end of their juvenile sentences at a youth facility in Harrisburg, Illinois in the spring of 2017 when they found themselves flung directly into multiyear sentences in the adult corrections system following altercations with guards.
Summarized from The State Journal Register (sj-r.com). Read the full article here.
Jaylan Banks and Sylvester Williams were nearing the end of their juvenile sentences at a youth facility in Harrisburg, Illinois in the spring of 2017 when they found themselves flung directly into multiyear sentences in the adult corrections system following altercations with guards.
Banks and Williams were just two of an estimated dozens of predominantly black, Chicago-area teenagers in the custody of the state's Department of Juvenile Justice who were prosecuted on charges of aggravated battery brought by corrections officers, nearly all of whom are white.
The teens were handed arbitrarily lengthy sentences in a "troubling" trend that began in southern Illinois' rural Saline County in 2016, according to the John Howard Association, a local prison watchdog group.