February 13, 2012

Re-Entry? West River Says: Try “No Entry”

Rep. Dillon, retired police Detective Stacy Spell, Jamila Marr and Jerry Poole
at the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation's press conference on
keeping kids out of the "school-to-prison pipeline"

Adults in one of the city’s harder-hit crime districts promised to get to know every kid in their neighborhood and keep them straight before they enter the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

A dozen West River organizers made that declaration outside a Dunkin’ Donuts at the crossroads of their neighborhood Monday morning.

That crossroads, of Norton & Derby & George, has been the scene of sometimes deadly gun violence over the past two years.

It’s also where retired police Detective Stacy Spell set up a chess board on Saturday mornings to teach kids the game, to enlist them in picking up trash, and to spark a grassroots revival campaign in the process.

Monday’s press conference at that crossroads represents a ramping up of that campaign. It brought together the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation, which Spell heads; Masjid al-Islam, which has an active youth wing and has long served as an anchor of the neighborhood; and the Dwight management team into a new coalition called ROCC. The acronym stands for “Reclaiming Our Community Coalition.”

“In the past we worked in separate silos,” Spell said. No more.

The organizers announced Monday that they’ve come up with two joint campaigns. One is called “No Entry.”

It begins with a door-to-door survey of all homes in the immediate area with kids between 3 and 12 years old.

“We really don’t know the kids in our neighborhood,” said Jerry Poole, who with his wife Joyce Poole has been at the forefront of West River improvement efforts since the 1980s.

The survey will include the names of children and what the family believes the kids need. Then the coalition will launch programs for the kids. Poole said the group plans to start with a Saturday morning pancake breakfast reading program then branch out to after-school writing, drumming and other themed efforts. Barnard Environmental Studies Principal Mike Crocco, who was present at the event Monday, said he’d like to see the programs take place at his school.

“You’ve heard of ‘re-entry,’” Poole said at the press conference, referring to New Haven’s efforts to reincorporate the 25 people leaving jail each week back into productive lives in the city. “This is ‘no entry’” aimed at “the school-to-prison pipeline.”

“This resets the baseline,” added New Haven state Rep. Pat Dillon. “We should not have a policy that normalizes going to prison [for people growing up in areas like West River]. Re-entry is fine in its place. But it assumes that it is normal to get there in the first place.”

Spell said people interested in joining the campaign can call him at 203-777-2192.

Alderwoman Tyisha Walker with Dillon & Marr.

ROCC’s other new campaign, called “Shun The Guns,” is aimed at changing cultural acceptance of guns among young people.

Point person Jamila Marr, president of the masjid’s Youth Empowerment Squad, said the group hopes to have the campaign up and running by April 15, in time for the summer, “where we have the most problems with gun violence on our streets.” She said she’d like to see the effort include banners with “positive messages” put up around town and new programs to keep young people busy.