VTMBH Article: Body
Sharonne Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam, said she heard about Matias Reyes confession to the rape in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, when a friend called and said to turn on the TV. And she read more about it from a report in The New York Times. Ms. Salaam, whose son was imprisoned for the crime, was shocked by the report, because it was evident that the police had known about the confession for some time, but it had been quietly leaked to the public. If it wasnt for TV and the paper, wed still be in the dark, she said.
She does not think it was an accident that she learned about it in this way. Since I heard about it through the press, it meant that there was possibly going to be a cover-up taking place. If the police had been really acting in earnest, they would have called first and said that an investigation was going on.
Now that Matias Reyes has confessed, and his DNA matches the semen found on the jogger, I would like all the childrens names to be cleared from all this, so they will have an opportunity to move on with their lives, said Ms. Salaam. They all have a cloud over their heads. My son is considered a sexual predator of the highest degree and hes doing the best he can under the circumstances. But everyplace you go for a job you have to say you have a record as a felon and sexual predator. Whos going to hire you? What kind of life is that? My son grew up in jail.
When Yusef was arrested, Ms. Salaam was working on Seventh Avenue as a fashion designer and instructor at Parsons School of Design. I was as far away from this kind of thing as you could imagine, and when this happened, I was thrown into a whirlwind of mass hysteria. And in the end, Ive changed. Everythings changed.
The subject of the youths confessions always comes up. First of all, Yusef had no confession, and the other youngsters were manipulated into agreeing to whatever the police said. I dont know if thats even considered a confession. You play these mind games, keeping people up all night. Its like on television, where they have prisoners of war whom theyre trying to break to the point where theyll say anything you want. As you can see, it works much easier when you have a bunch of children that youre working on, and you have seasoned professionals who are doing the act.
Even so, they had problems with the confessions. One of the children had four different videotapesin each one he told a different story. The judge ruled they were all right.
With her life redirected by her sons arrest and imprisonment, Ms. Salaam learned firsthand about young people in the criminal justice system. On one of my visits with Yusef, I ran into Father Lawrence Lucas. Father Lucas started telling us about what was happening to children and asked if we could help some of the children who were in prison. We talked with him about what that would mean if we expanded and started advocating on behalf of other children besides Yusef. What that would mean to him in terms of others becoming angry with him and wanting to do things to him. In the end we made an agreement, and we went out and started putting together People United For Children. There were a number of us: Father Lucas, Bill Perkins, Bob Stokes, Anne Evans, Frank Harris and myself.
They started out by taking food to incarcerated children and bringing speakers and community people in. We went on from there to begin direct service advocacy, Ms. Salaam said.
It was later that the group found that many of the children came from the foster care system. About 30-35 percent of kids in foster-care have trouble with the juvenile justice system, says Salaam. And when they come out of foster care, 70 to 75 people go into the criminal justice system. When you talk to people in prison, the majority of them had been in foster care. Its sad because we spend so much money on the foster-care system, but the majority of the children are poorly served by whats being done. Ms. Salaam feels that this speaks to the type of services offered young people as they age out of the foster care system. And our commitment to young people is we say we want to save from abusive parents.
We realized there is nothing the children can do to help themselves, and that we had to get the parents involved in the process of advocating for their children.
People United For Children assists the parents whose children are in jail in being better advocates for their children. When youre talking to the kids who are incarcerated and theyre telling you about a system thats breaking down and that they need help, theres nothing that they can do. You have to get their parents involved in the process of being there for their child. And making sure their needs are being taken care of.
She does not think it was an accident that she learned about it in this way. Since I heard about it through the press, it meant that there was possibly going to be a cover-up taking place. If the police had been really acting in earnest, they would have called first and said that an investigation was going on.
Now that Matias Reyes has confessed, and his DNA matches the semen found on the jogger, I would like all the childrens names to be cleared from all this, so they will have an opportunity to move on with their lives, said Ms. Salaam. They all have a cloud over their heads. My son is considered a sexual predator of the highest degree and hes doing the best he can under the circumstances. But everyplace you go for a job you have to say you have a record as a felon and sexual predator. Whos going to hire you? What kind of life is that? My son grew up in jail.
When Yusef was arrested, Ms. Salaam was working on Seventh Avenue as a fashion designer and instructor at Parsons School of Design. I was as far away from this kind of thing as you could imagine, and when this happened, I was thrown into a whirlwind of mass hysteria. And in the end, Ive changed. Everythings changed.
The subject of the youths confessions always comes up. First of all, Yusef had no confession, and the other youngsters were manipulated into agreeing to whatever the police said. I dont know if thats even considered a confession. You play these mind games, keeping people up all night. Its like on television, where they have prisoners of war whom theyre trying to break to the point where theyll say anything you want. As you can see, it works much easier when you have a bunch of children that youre working on, and you have seasoned professionals who are doing the act.
Even so, they had problems with the confessions. One of the children had four different videotapesin each one he told a different story. The judge ruled they were all right.
With her life redirected by her sons arrest and imprisonment, Ms. Salaam learned firsthand about young people in the criminal justice system. On one of my visits with Yusef, I ran into Father Lawrence Lucas. Father Lucas started telling us about what was happening to children and asked if we could help some of the children who were in prison. We talked with him about what that would mean if we expanded and started advocating on behalf of other children besides Yusef. What that would mean to him in terms of others becoming angry with him and wanting to do things to him. In the end we made an agreement, and we went out and started putting together People United For Children. There were a number of us: Father Lucas, Bill Perkins, Bob Stokes, Anne Evans, Frank Harris and myself.
They started out by taking food to incarcerated children and bringing speakers and community people in. We went on from there to begin direct service advocacy, Ms. Salaam said.
It was later that the group found that many of the children came from the foster care system. About 30-35 percent of kids in foster-care have trouble with the juvenile justice system, says Salaam. And when they come out of foster care, 70 to 75 people go into the criminal justice system. When you talk to people in prison, the majority of them had been in foster care. Its sad because we spend so much money on the foster-care system, but the majority of the children are poorly served by whats being done. Ms. Salaam feels that this speaks to the type of services offered young people as they age out of the foster care system. And our commitment to young people is we say we want to save from abusive parents.
We realized there is nothing the children can do to help themselves, and that we had to get the parents involved in the process of advocating for their children.
People United For Children assists the parents whose children are in jail in being better advocates for their children. When youre talking to the kids who are incarcerated and theyre telling you about a system thats breaking down and that they need help, theres nothing that they can do. You have to get their parents involved in the process of being there for their child. And making sure their needs are being taken care of.