Students at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School wasted no time listening to MPX Fitness owner Mariah Prussia as she showed them how to jab, kick and defend themselves.
The professional boxer and certified trainer was in the school to give an introductory class to programs available for youth provided by the Fargo Police Department’s Community Engagement Team, which works with several athletic businesses to offer basketball, boxing and kids’ fitness lessons.
But there is more to the team’s efforts to engage children than teaching them to throw a right hook or dribble a basketball. The engagement team hopes to reduce the number of minority children who come face-to-face with the criminal justice system.
Several studies by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Office, a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, found Cass and Burleigh counties have higher rates of racial and ethnic disparity than other counties in North Dakota. In other words, there is overrepresentation of minority youth in the criminal justice system, Fargo Police Lt. George Vinson said.
In 2017, Cass County had the highest number of juvenile arrests for minorities, with officers taking into custody more than 300 children who were black, Native American or Hispanic, according to the most recent reports. Most counties had less than 75 minority juvenile arrests, and Cass’ numbers were almost double Burleigh’s, the report said.
While Cass arrested more white children (476) than minorities, the proportion of black, American Indian and Hispanic children arrested compared to total the population of each race were each higher than Caucasian children, a trend seen across North Dakota.
Cass County received funding in the past to help reduce overrepresentation of minority children in the justice system. The Fargo Police Department received a $32,000 federal grant to be used between October 2018 and October 2020 for programs aimed at children, whether it is offering athletic classes or juvenile diversion services.
“Instead of sending a youth to the criminal justice system for a minor criminal offense, we instead send them to this programming, which has proven to have better outcomes,” Vinson said.
“If you don’t have anything to do, you are more apt to get into trouble,” Prussia said. “But if you are involved in different programs, you have healthy mentors.”
Vinson said it’s too early to tell if the efforts are working, but some families believe they are.
Paulita Ruiz’s daughter participated in the program, and the mother praised the Fargo Police Department and Prussia in a video posted to Facebook. The program helped Ruiz’s daughter, changed the mother’s attitude toward police and impacted her life, she said.
“It taught me to not give up as a mother,” Ruiz said. “It took the one right officer to help my family out.”
Accountability is not criminalization
The Justice Department requires states to look at juvenile minority disproportionality on a statewide level and in at least three jurisdictions, said Lisa Jahner, juvenile justice program manager for the North Dakota Association of Counties.
Socioeconomic factors, language barriers and cultural differences could contribute to why some counties have higher rates of minorities in the juvenile justice system, she said.
“I don’t think we can really point in any one direction with regard to the numbers,” she said.
Cass and Burleigh counties have the largest minority populations in the state, one Justice Department report noted. In Cass, 11% of black children were arrested in 2017, compared to 2.6% of white juveniles, the report said. About 10% of American Indian children and 4.5% of Hispanic children were arrested that year.
Statewide, 8.3% of black children and nearly 5% of American Indian children were arrested, compared with 2.2% of white children and 2.5% of Hispanic children, the DOJ said.
Vinson noted studies suggesting racial bias at different levels of the justice system. He recalled responding to a report of children running through backyards and finding out “it was very apparent to me that race was driving that person to call police.”
“It’s phenomena like that that also fuels that (racial and ethnic disparity) statistic in the criminal justice system, not just in Fargo but at the nationwide level,” he said.
Across the nation, juvenile arrests in 2017 dropped 70% from the peak year of 1996, when officers took more than 2.5 million children into custody.
Still, minorities are nearly twice as likely to be arrested compared to white children, and black children are more than 2.5 times more likely to be arrested than Caucasian juveniles, according to the DOJ.
Minority children who end up in the justice system often are economically disadvantaged, Jahner said, meaning they can’t afford to do some of the activities other children can. Cass County has found a way to use a small amount of money to make a large impact.
“They are really trying to dig in and address this issue at the local level,” she said, adding the county has done well to engage with stakeholders and different communities.
Reaching out to children through the police programs teaches them in ways conventional techniques do not, Carl Ben Eielson Assistant Principal Dean Wilson said.
Using the grant funds shows the engagement team is trying to serve everyone in the community, as well as understand different groups’ values and perspectives, Vinson said.
Establishing a relationship with a child can go a long way in preventing them from ending up in the justice system, Jahner added.
“One of the things that we know is accountability does not need to equal criminalization,” she said. “Yes, youth need to be held accountable. That doesn’t mean we need to bring them further into the justice system than necessary.”
Mariah Prussia of MPX Fitness works with a gym class Monday, Dec. 16, at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School, Fargo. She will be teaching a weekly wellness class after school there starting Jan. 9. Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
Open hearts and minds
Fargo-based Inspired Basketball Academy founder Tyrone “Monty” Gordon Jr. said he sees a mirror of himself in children he mentors through the police department’s program. He grew up in Milwaukee, where crime rates and the “risk of taking a wrong turn” are higher than in Fargo, he said.
As a child, he didn’t have the opportunities the police department offers, but he said every community needs mentors youth can look up to.
He got involved to show children that people care about them, he said.
Watching the kids do well in activities and hearing they are flourishing is a huge reward, he said. Children he mentors will come up to him on his time off, smile and speak with him.
“They trust you, and they want to embrace you because you’re embracing them,” he said.
The programs are not just for children who have committed crimes, Vinson said. The point of holding these classes is to expand the engagement team’s outreach while providing opportunities for kids to set goals, learn life lessons and grow as individuals, Prussia added.
At Carl Ben Eielson Middle School, children smiled as they greeted Community Trust Officer Michael Bloom. Some gave him fist bumps and high-fives.
The programs help children find healthy mentors, lead them through childhood and teach them to trust police officers, he said.
“We just see the value in the youth of our community and that they’re our future,” Bloom said. “All youth matter, no matter what they’re going through or what they’ve been through.”
“Family life now is a little different from when we grew up,” Prussia said. “We have to mend different fences and open our hearts and our minds to different things that we can provide to the children.”