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Speaker 1: Sintoya Brown.

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Speaker 2: She's been in prison for more than a decade now,

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Speaker 2: but her case is catching fire on social media.

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Speaker 3: Well you building today, Brown's lawyers are heading all the

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Speaker 3: way to Cincinnati.

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Speaker 1: They're going to go before the Sixth Circuit Court of

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Speaker 1: Appeals to argue that Cintoya Brown's sentence was unconstitutional. Till

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Speaker 1: you builds go, her dream of freedom now denied, as

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Speaker 1: the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Brown will become

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Speaker 1: eligible for parole after her sixty ninth birthday.

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Speaker 2: Chances are, if you paid attention to the news at

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Speaker 2: any point between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, you've heard

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Speaker 2: Cintoya Brown's name. Then, in her thirties, the Tennessee native

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Speaker 2: had been serving a life sentence for a murder committed

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Speaker 2: as a teen. At the time of her trial in

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Speaker 2: two thousand and six, the state of Tennessee had a

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Speaker 2: mandatory sentence for this type of crime, life in prison,

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Speaker 2: no matter the circumstances.

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Speaker 4: Really have a situation where a sixteen year old child

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Speaker 4: who operates at about a ten year old level, who

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Speaker 4: has organic brain damage and that affected her all the

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Speaker 4: way to the present. When you look at all this

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Speaker 4: was it a fundamentally fair trial.

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Speaker 2: Cinoya was born to an alcohol and crack addicted teen

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Speaker 2: mom and was later diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. By

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Speaker 2: two years old, her mother had given her up. She

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Speaker 2: later became a runaway. As a young teen in the streets,

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Speaker 2: she was sex trafficked by an older man. Then, one

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Speaker 2: night in two thousand and four, Cintoya was picked up

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Speaker 2: by a man in his forties. She was sixteen. While

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Speaker 2: in bed, Cinoya thought her abuser was reaching for a

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Speaker 2: gun and she shot him. She claimed it was self defense,

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Speaker 2: but it didn't really matter per Tennessee's law, Centoya was

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Speaker 2: tried as an adult. WADA jury found defendant Centoya Denase Brown.

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Speaker 5: Partly grey murdered, guilty.

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Speaker 2: Of fellowly murdered and sentenced to life. More than a

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Speaker 2: decade into Cintoya's time in prison, artist Rihanna shared her

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Speaker 2: case in twenty seventeen, and it quickly went viral. A

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Speaker 2: number of high profile supporters, including celebrities Kim Kardashian and

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Speaker 2: Snoop Dogg, called for a second chance for Cinoia. In

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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, Cintoya was finally granted clemency. By then Tennessee

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Speaker 2: Governor Bill Haslam. But what about the other one hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty plus juvenile lifers who remain in prison in Tennessee,

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Speaker 2: the ones who didn't get gofund me campaigns, segments on

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Speaker 2: national TV, and support from celebrities.

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Speaker 6: From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria

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Speaker 6: Ino Rosa today the growing movement to push juveniles into

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Speaker 6: the adult prison system in Tennessee. In our show today,

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Speaker 6: producer Jurieta Martinelli, who you heard from at the top,

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Speaker 6: is going to take us to Tennessee, where a legal

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Speaker 6: battle is currently brewing between those who believe in rehabilitation

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Speaker 6: for kids facing time in prison and those who wish

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Speaker 6: to see longer, harsher sentencing for minors. Here's Jurieta Martinelli

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Speaker 6: once again.

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Speaker 2: The science is very clear. Human beings don't fully develop

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Speaker 2: their brains until they're at least twenty five, sometimes even older.

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Speaker 2: That's particularly true for the prefrontal cortex of the brain,

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Speaker 2: which is responsible for our decision making and our ability

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Speaker 2: to think through consequences of our actions. That's why in

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Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, the Supreme Court made a monumental decision in

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Speaker 2: a case known as Montgomery versus Louisiana.

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Speaker 7: Now five to four decision, the High Court ruled that

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Speaker 7: it is unconstitutional for states to mandate sentences of life

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Speaker 7: without parole for juveniles under the age of eighteen.

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Speaker 2: A flurry of re sentencing hearings followed all around the

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Speaker 2: country for joannile lifers, but in Tennessee it seemed as

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Speaker 2: if the Supreme Court decision never came down. Tennessee claimed

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Speaker 2: that the Supreme Court decision didn't apply to them because

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Speaker 2: its mandatory sentences are technically sixty to life, and even

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Speaker 2: when the Tennessee Supreme Court reduced the minimum serving time

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Speaker 2: to fifty one years in twenty eighteen, advocates argued it

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Speaker 2: was still basically a life sentence. I mean, let's do

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Speaker 2: the math. Someone sentence at sixteen years old, like Centoia,

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Speaker 2: has the right to go in front of a parole

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Speaker 2: after serving fifty one years. By then that person would

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Speaker 2: be at least sixty seven. But according to data from

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Speaker 2: the Tennessee Department of Corrections, the average life expectancy of

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Speaker 2: an incarcerated person in the state is just fifty two.

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Speaker 2: So basically, the chance that you would even make it

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Speaker 2: to a parole hearing is in practice no, and that's

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Speaker 2: exactly what led to another lawsuit before the Tennessee Supreme

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Speaker 2: Court in twenty twenty two. The case revolved around Tyshawn Booker,

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Speaker 2: who likes Centoya, was convicted under the States to facto

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Speaker 2: life sentence when he was sixteen. Booker's lawyers argued that

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Speaker 2: the sentence was unconstitutional. This time, Tennessee's highest court agreed.

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Speaker 8: Do at five tonight life in prison no more for

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Speaker 8: certain inmates. Recently, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed years of

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Speaker 8: law ruling it is unconstitutional for a juvenile to serve

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Speaker 8: a mandatory life sentence in the state. The court says

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Speaker 8: juveniles should be eligible for parole after twenty five to

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Speaker 8: thirty six years in prison instead of fifty one.

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Speaker 2: Advocates thought, this is it. Change is coming, and in

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Speaker 2: a way, change did come, just not quite as they imagined.

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Speaker 3: Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally says violent crime is out of

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Speaker 3: control in Tennessee and that lawmakers must change the process

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Speaker 3: so criminal gangs can no longer use young people for

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Speaker 3: violence with impunity. Republican lawmakers want more juveniles to be

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Speaker 3: tried as adults.

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Speaker 2: The state legislature, controlled by Republicans, unleashed a flurry of

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Speaker 2: new bills following the Tennessee Supreme Court's decision.

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Speaker 4: Rep.

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Speaker 2: Robert Stevens of Smyrna, a neighboring town to Nashville, introduced

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Speaker 2: a bill that would require juveniles sixteen or older to

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Speaker 2: be tried in adult court for their second defense, even

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Speaker 2: for petty arrests like shoplifting. Another bill by Republican lawmaker

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Speaker 2: John Gillespie of Memphis would allow courts to consider a

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Speaker 2: person's juvenile record when making decisions about bond even decades

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Speaker 2: down the line. But according to advocates and lawyers that

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Speaker 2: we spoke with, the worst of all was passed at

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Speaker 2: the start of the year. It's called blended sentencing.

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Speaker 5: You're blending their sentence where part of it's done in

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Speaker 5: a juvenile setting and part of it's done in the

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Speaker 5: adult setting.

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Speaker 2: That's Judge Sheila Callaway, who for over a decade has

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Speaker 2: presided over a juvenile courtroom in Nashville. Before that, she

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Speaker 2: spent a decade in the same courtroom as a magistrate.

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Speaker 2: Calloway says the new law requires judges like her to

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Speaker 2: impose on minors as young as fourteen years old, a

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Speaker 2: juvenile sentence and an adult sentence once they reach legal age.

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Speaker 5: If a child over fourteen commits a certain serious attention,

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Speaker 5: those sentences could be eligible for our blended.

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Speaker 2: Sentencing, and it comes with some new rules.

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Speaker 5: They have the right to have a jury trial on

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Speaker 5: that matter within one year, and that jury trial has

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Speaker 5: to be held in the adult system by an adult judge.

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Speaker 5: Then they are sent back to the junial court judge

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Speaker 5: to do the actual sentencing, and so as they judge,

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Speaker 5: I have to sentence them to no less than serving

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Speaker 5: up until the time they're nineteen years old, and once

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Speaker 5: they turn nineteen, I am also obligated to sentence them

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Speaker 5: to an adult sentence.

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Speaker 2: I want is to really take in what's happening here.

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Speaker 2: Say a sixteen year old is charged with a felony

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Speaker 2: like robbery, then a judge is obligated to sentence them

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Speaker 2: to prison until they're nineteen years old, and then on

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Speaker 2: top of that, the teen has to be sentenced a

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Speaker 2: second time for the same crime as an adult too.

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Speaker 5: You have the constitutional right to have a jury of

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Speaker 5: your peers, but if you're our fourteen or fifteen year old,

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Speaker 5: you're not allowed to be on a jury. Most juries

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Speaker 5: are filled with people who are voters first and foremost.

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Speaker 5: There's not a lot of diversity in the voting pool,

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Speaker 5: and so what you find out is most of those

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Speaker 5: juries of your peers, even as adults, aren't really what

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Speaker 5: our peers look like. And so there's a question about

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Speaker 5: whether this jury your peers is really going to stand

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Speaker 5: up to constitutional muster.

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Speaker 2: Some context here, about seventy five percent of Tennessee's population

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Speaker 2: is white, but four out of five juvenile lifers in

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Speaker 2: prisons in Tennessee today are black men. The juries already

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Speaker 2: don't represent them. She also points out that the way

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Speaker 2: that you law is written, it is an adult court

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Speaker 2: judge who hears the facts and evidence of the case

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Speaker 2: and decides whether to convict. When the child is sent

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Speaker 2: back to her courtroom just for sentencing, she now has

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Speaker 2: to issue a sentence without being the one who heard

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Speaker 2: the circumstances around the case.

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Speaker 6: When we come back, we're going to continue looking at

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Speaker 6: why those working in juvenile justice say moving kids to

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Speaker 6: the adult system is a mistake, and we take a

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Speaker 6: visit to a group of volunteers hoping to step in

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Speaker 6: so miners don't end up in the system in the

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Speaker 6: first place.

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Speaker 1: Stay with us.

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Speaker 6: Yes, before the break, we learned about the growing pressure

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Speaker 6: to prosecute children as adults in Tennessee. Now we pick

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Speaker 6: up with a juvenile court judge who tells us why

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Speaker 6: it matters to keep kids within their own justice system.

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Speaker 6: Here's Riata Martinelli once again.

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Speaker 2: Judge Sheila Callaway says her nearly two decades in a

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Speaker 2: juvenile courtroom has taught her that many of those children

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Speaker 2: who end up in front of her are also dealing

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Speaker 2: with complex trauma and unmet needs, something her courtroom, which

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Speaker 2: she calls trauma informed, has been trained to detect and

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Speaker 2: deal with. That is not true of adult courts, where

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Speaker 2: yet many juveniles end up in.

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Speaker 5: The majority of the youth that we see who have

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Speaker 5: been charged with crimes have started in our system either

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Speaker 5: being a child who has abused or neglected or being

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Speaker 5: the center of a custody battle. And so there's a

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Speaker 5: large number of our youth that come to the system

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Speaker 5: that we're not giving the best opportunity to thrive from

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Speaker 5: when they were children or when they were babies. And

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Speaker 5: for me, that is something that is super important for

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Speaker 5: us to understand.

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Speaker 2: Advocates have long said what we often end up seeing

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Speaker 2: is victims become victimizers if there's no intervention to heal

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Speaker 2: the root issue.

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Speaker 5: When we put children in prisons, we are stopping their growth.

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Speaker 5: We are halting their ability to change in a positive way.

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Speaker 5: We are placing them in ultra negative circumstances where their

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Speaker 5: brain is absorbing everything around them. We are cutting off

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Speaker 5: their ability to get true education, to have counseling and

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Speaker 5: job training, and all the things that we need for

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Speaker 5: our youth to develop in a positive way.

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Speaker 2: So when a child ends up in an adult prison system,

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Speaker 2: the effect is the whole opposite.

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Speaker 5: A adult system is about crime and punishment. We can

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Speaker 5: absolutely affect the way that their brains are developing, which

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Speaker 5: gives them the opportunity to be rehabilitated. That's what the

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Speaker 5: goal of a juvenile system was supposed to be and

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Speaker 5: what it should always be.

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Speaker 2: But if juvenile crime in the state is so out

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Speaker 2: of control that measures like this are needed to protect

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Speaker 2: the general population, then it makes sense.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 2: The thing is, despite Republican lawmakers across the state pushing

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Speaker 2: for tough on crime sentencing and ongoing claims that juvenile

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Speaker 2: crime is higher than ever, data actually shows that As

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Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four, youth arrests have decreased by more

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Speaker 2: than half in the last decade.

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Speaker 5: Educating the public is difficult, and we have several different

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Speaker 5: media that are constantly talking about the juvenile prime is increasing,

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Speaker 5: and it's the same story of the same kid that

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Speaker 5: committed the same crime. And so people who are listening

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Speaker 5: to news and hearing these things are hearing, oh my god,

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Speaker 5: all these kids are breaking in stuff. I think sometimes

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Speaker 5: our news media highlights juvenile crime much, much meta more

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Speaker 5: than they highlight adult crime. That's not really.

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Speaker 2: Accurate, Calloway says. In essence, what we're seeing is the

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Speaker 2: unexpected result of the Supreme Court decision that aim to

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Speaker 2: bring Tennessee laws regarding juvenile lifers to equal footing with

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Speaker 2: other states. It's a hard push by Republican lawmakers. The

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Speaker 2: opposite way.

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Speaker 5: I think it's an effort to open the fleck who

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Speaker 5: has to go into the adult system.

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Speaker 2: So, how do you deal with public safety with children

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Speaker 2: who commit crimes, especially serious crimes that hurt and alter

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Speaker 2: the lives of other people. How do you provide accountability

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Speaker 2: while still taking their humanity into account. It's a question

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Speaker 2: that judges, lawyers, activists and lawmakers have been scrambling over

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Speaker 2: for a long time, seemingly nowhere closer to a solution.

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Speaker 9: It's not a simple, straightforward like here's the secret magic

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Speaker 9: bullet that cures at all. But when it comes to prevention,

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Speaker 9: it's a matter of just really showing a young child

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Speaker 9: that they are cared for, nurtured, and that there's a

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Speaker 9: community of support.

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Speaker 2: That's Marcel Hernandez I.

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Speaker 9: Am founder of Be About Change, and we are here

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Speaker 9: at the Boys and Girls Club in Columbia, Tennessee.

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Speaker 2: Hernandez currently works in development for programs that empower marginalized communities.

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Speaker 2: He also runs this program called Project Lead. He partners

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Speaker 2: with other nonprofits, community groups, and even school systems to

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Speaker 2: encourage at risk kids to participate.

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Speaker 9: We know the strongest productor of negative justice outcomes involve

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Speaker 9: poverty and the inability to see available life choices. So

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Speaker 9: one thing that we really prefer to focus on is

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Speaker 9: how can we elevate the viewpoint of young people so

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Speaker 9: that we can then see farther, wider, broader in terms

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Speaker 9: of what life has to offer. Oftentimes it's just a

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Speaker 9: matter of either environmental factors or circumstances or past traumas

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Speaker 9: even and things that seemingly don't allow us to see

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Speaker 9: farther down the road. So we try to function as

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Speaker 9: a mirror so that young people can see their own strengths.

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Speaker 2: On this warm, sunny April morning. I get to witness

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Speaker 2: it myself.

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Speaker 8: So I'm going to give you also candie.

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Speaker 5: You all can have as much of that as possible.

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Speaker 8: However, the number of star wars that you are holding

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Speaker 8: in your hand is the number of things that you

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Speaker 8: have to tell the person who says, tell me about

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Speaker 8: your son.

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Speaker 7: All right, no, no, no, no, no no.

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Speaker 1: You have four minutes, all right, simply walk around and

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Speaker 1: talk to each other. And I just want to hear

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Speaker 1: one question.

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Speaker 8: I want you to ask the person to tell me

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Speaker 8: about yourself.

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Speaker 5: All right, it's going to work. It's gonna work.

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Speaker 2: I look over at Marcel and he's smiling.

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Speaker 9: They're leading to a personal pitch learning how to tell

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Speaker 9: others about ourselves. So just social skills communication.

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Speaker 10: It's just so funny because they had the opportunity to

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Speaker 10: pull as many candies as they wanted. But now it's

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Speaker 10: a little bit of punishment if you got a little greedy.

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Speaker 10: So it's such a dual lesson right.

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Speaker 2: Columbia is a town with about fifteen thousand residents an

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Speaker 2: hour south west of Nashville. There really isn't much to

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Speaker 2: do in Columbia. On the drive there, I pass gorgeous

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Speaker 2: open pastures, farms, cows. It's a big football town, so

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Speaker 2: a lot of kids dream of making it by playing sports.

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Speaker 2: As I sit in on the activities of the day,

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Speaker 2: I learn more about them. There are ten kids here,

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Speaker 2: nine boys and one girl. They range in ages from

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Speaker 2: twelve to seventeen. The day started with a group workout. First,

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Speaker 2: they did push ups and burpies. Hernandez is a lifelong

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Speaker 2: believer that learning to be disciplined and fitness spreads to

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Speaker 2: other areas. The kids seem to enjoy it. Most of

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Speaker 2: the leaders in the room today are African American men

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Speaker 2: as young as college aged all the way to retirement.

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Speaker 2: They tell me that it's important that kids have male

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Speaker 2: figures in their lives to look up to, who understand

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Speaker 2: where they come from and what their lives are like.

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Speaker 9: Oftentimes we find that we're trying to kind of undo

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Speaker 9: a lifetime of things that have kind of led up

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Speaker 9: to that, and so in a very real sense, it's

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Speaker 9: more of an intervention rather than a prevention.

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Speaker 2: But at Project Lead, the name of the game is

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Speaker 2: here and now, not when it's too late.

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Speaker 1: So somebody tell me from your experience, how either easy

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Speaker 1: or how difficult was that? It was easy?

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Speaker 4: Okay?

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Speaker 5: All you had to talk about was so all right?

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Speaker 5: So who got the I'm gonna be right over there

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Speaker 5: with who got the opportunity to talk to Elijah? All right?

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Speaker 8: Somebody tell me what.

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Speaker 1: They remember this tell me about yourself. Question is going

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Speaker 1: to be important for you to know and to know.

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Speaker 5: How to answer it, because you will be asking job

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Speaker 5: interviews to tell me about yourself as you begin to

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Speaker 5: get into college and go.

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Speaker 1: Forward and move into workspaces.

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Speaker 8: People want to know who you are.

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Speaker 2: But what A few brave volunteers stand on a small

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Speaker 2: table and share their elevator pitch that they spent the

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Speaker 2: morning working on mentors, having teaching them how to confidently

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Speaker 2: introduce themselves, share what they have to offer, and ask

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Speaker 2: for what they want. They tell the young people in

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Speaker 2: the room that it'll help them when applying for college

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Speaker 2: and later for a good job. They will have college interviews,

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Speaker 2: they will get good jobs. They want them to envision it,

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Speaker 2: to see themselves doing it successfully.

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Speaker 1: Tell about yourself.

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Speaker 5: Nice meet.

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Speaker 4: I'm a numberious school.

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Speaker 5: I recently joined the track team and I'm currently headed

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Speaker 5: to the Sun Secret I'm interested in playing football this

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Speaker 5: year and I love to.

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Speaker 8: Opportunities that you play sports at the next levels.

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Speaker 5: Uh, what do you be helping to?

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Speaker 10: Scheduling stuff the next week?

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Speaker 6: The same?

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Speaker 4: The must be your time.

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Speaker 2: One by one, more hands go up. In the end,

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Speaker 2: every kid has volunteered to go up and introduce themselves

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Speaker 2: their peers, and the mentors cheer them on. They tell

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Speaker 2: them how well they've done, how confident they sound. Even

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Speaker 2: when they're dismissed, the kids hang around. A few of

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Speaker 2: them help clean up, Others go to the court and

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Speaker 2: shoot a basketball. A couple others linger around chatting with

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Speaker 2: Hernandez and the group of men here today it's a Saturday,

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Speaker 2: a day off from school, but the kids are not

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Speaker 2: ready to go home.

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Speaker 9: The biggest piece that we've seen when it comes to

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Speaker 9: success or shifting those trajectories is, of course, number one

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Speaker 9: is family engagement. Family involvement. Number two community involvement. So

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Speaker 9: young people seem to thrive when they are fully aware

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Speaker 9: that there's a community.

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Speaker 2: Of support at the end of the day, the mentors

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Speaker 2: who are volunteering from different programs and cities, most of

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Speaker 2: whom have just met today, gather around. They give thanks,

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Speaker 2: speaking strength on to one another, just as they did

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Speaker 2: the children.

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Speaker 9: This confirmation that we get the right key people here

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Speaker 9: to make all this happen.

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Speaker 6: So close to you.

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Speaker 9: I really admire your work, and you're a man. You're

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Speaker 9: gonna you're gonna keep writing, right. I can see it.

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Speaker 9: I can I can see the day when Jack remembers

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Speaker 9: how you put your hand on his shoulder and told

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Speaker 9: him I've been where you're at.

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Speaker 3: You didn't have somebody that I could say I looked

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Speaker 3: up to that was big.

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Speaker 1: You feel.

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Speaker 5: Appreciate.

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Speaker 8: So I would encourage all of us to be praying

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Speaker 8: for the hearts of these kids and show up actually

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Speaker 8: their hearts. Be softly, be willing to listen to the

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Speaker 8: wisdom in this room.

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Speaker 2: One of the local leaders speaks up.

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Speaker 5: I just noticed you. I've been arm a whole lot.

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Speaker 6: I just know how it works.

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Speaker 5: They have to see it, and it has to say

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Speaker 5: exist because a lot of people do.

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Speaker 8: This, but then you don't.

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Speaker 5: You know, So that's really the key component to that

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Speaker 5: come said Okay, you know what, that's something I'm for

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Speaker 5: to or.

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Speaker 6: It's just another thing.

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Speaker 8: And getting the parents, I'm kids, get the parents, believe in.

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Speaker 10: There because we're only un failure away of being just

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Speaker 10: like some people.

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Speaker 2: And maybe really that's the only way out of this,

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Speaker 2: showing up and showing care and commitment to the parents too,

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Speaker 2: and understanding that every adult was once a child, maybe

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Speaker 2: a child who was also failed by the system, and

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Speaker 2: treating children as children and working together as a community

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Speaker 2: to make sure their needs are met before it's too late.

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Speaker 2: After all, it does take a village.

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Speaker 6: Our episode was produced by Julieta Martinelli and edited by

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Speaker 6: Andrea Lopez Cruzado. It was mixed by gabriel A Bayez.

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Speaker 6: Fact checking for this episode by Roxanna Aguire. The Latino

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Speaker 6: USA team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victor Ri Estrava,

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Speaker 6: Dominique Inestrosa, Renaldo Lenos Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Luis, Luna Marta Martinez,

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Speaker 6: Monica Morales, Garcia, JJ Carubin, Tasha Sandoval, Moor Saudi, and

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Speaker 6: Nancy Truchuillo. Fernanda Chavari is our managing editor. Benni Lee Ramirez,

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Speaker 6: Maria Garcia and I are co executive producers and I'm

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Speaker 6: your host, Maria Josa. Join us again on our next episode.

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Speaker 6: In the meantime, look for us on all of your

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Speaker 6: social media. I'll see you on Instagram. Asta approxima note

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Speaker 6: bayaz ciao.

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Speaker 2: Latino USA is made possible in part by Public Welfare Foundation,

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Speaker 2: catalyzing transformative approaches to justice that are community led, restorative,

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Speaker 2: and racially just. Skyline Foundation and this project was completed

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Speaker 2: with the support of a grant from Columbia University's IRA A.

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Speaker 2: Lippman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights