The Revolving Door: Stories from the Juvenile Justice System

This narrative inquiry began as a visceral response to seeing a child in shackles, led into a courtroom, head down, all alone. Since the establishment of the first youth prison, America's carceral approach to youth has assumed that a slightly modified version of the adult correctional model of regulation and punishment will rehabilitate young people. Racialized, poor, disabled and “othered” children framed by intersectional markers and experiencing multiple interlocking oppressions are forced to move between institutions, from discipline in schools to incarceration in prisons – much like a revolving door. This study centers the voices of those “othered” children. I collected “stories to live by” -- a narrative view of identity -- from young adults in Kansas who have lived experience within the Juvenile Justice System (JJS). Narrative inquiry allows research to be interpretive and phenomenological—in that it involves examination of a participant’s lifeworld and explores their personal perception of an object or event, as opposed to an attempt to produce an objective statement of the object or event itself. Narrative inquirers focus on construction and presentation of self through story, and the relationship between researcher and participant in constructing a coherent narrative. I conducted a focused group story circle, then invited each participant to develop and share with me, individually, their stories of before, during, and after, their time in the JJS. I analyzed each line of data, created categories across the stories, then wove themes and resonant threads together, which emerged as the revolving door, the ruining process, and “fire tests gold” -- resilience. These stories weave a tapestry of struggle and disenfranchisement, both inside and outside the JJS. To honor the lived experience of these storytellers, we should move to dismantle the revolving door altogether.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Dobson, Christie Scanlin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sailor, Wayne

• Education policy
• Criminology
• Secondary education
• justice-involved youth
• juvenile detention center
• juvenile justice
• narrative inquiry

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:19046

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38873