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Articles, information and additional online resources. |
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Voices from the Trenches
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Martha Rivas is a counselor at San Francisco's Youth Guidance Center. |
Rivas on problems facing girls in custody:
"I've seen the same girls coming back and forth for years. It seems like now I'm working on my second generation. A couple of the girls say, 'Hey, I think you knew my aunt. She was here.' They are doing the same thing their aunts and cousins, their mothers used to do, and they can't seem to get out of the neighborhood. So they are trying to break the cycle. That's the problem.
"We are seeing an influx of prostitution. Drugs, that's been high with the girls too. And there are some gang-related incidents also. A lot of the girls are here because of placement failure. A lot of the girls complain about group homes [and other residential placements], that they are too far away for their parents to visit them or that they just couldn't get it together.
"The misconception is that all these kids are bad, evil. [People believe] they are all gang-bangers, they are killers, they are murderers. And that is not true. There's a percentage [of them] that are, but it's a very miniscule amount. A lot of the kids come from messed-up backgrounds, dysfunctional families. A lot of the girls talk to me in private about a lot of incest issues, rape issues, drugs, alcoholism, broken families ... no money coming in. All of that contributes to them being here. It's heart wrenching, you know. You see it over and over again."
Rivas on her role in the juvenile justice system:
"What I like about my job is watching the girls learn. I like to see them smile. I like to see them carry on. I like to see them change. And I have seen that. At times I've been out in a restaurant or shopping, and I'll run into my girls and they'll say, 'Hey, Ms. Rivas. It's me. Remember me?' 'Now I'm a nurse at St. Luke's Hospital,' or 'Now I'm an executive at Bank of America.' That's the satisfaction that I get -- to see that somebody made it. That is the best part of the job."
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