Sitting in his blue vinyl seat in the New York Penn Station waiting lounge, Samuel Odunsi relaxes by reading a newspaper while waiting for his train. After a hard day's work, he hums the song "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, drowning his senses from the hustle and bustle of his commute from New York City home to Newark.
Odunsi, a man with compassionate eyes and a comforting smile, works with young people who are detained at the Crossroads Juvenile Center of the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice in Brooklyn.
The New York City Department of Juvenile Justice has three state-of-the-art juvenile detention centers. Two are in the Bronx, and one is in Brooklyn. Odunsi also counsels young adults at the Horizon Juvenile Center, located in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx.
At his location and the others, he says that there seems to be a consistent flow of African Americans into the system. He feels there is a serious discrepancy in the way the New York justice system handles minorities, particularly young African-American adults. The detention center where he works houses 150 young adults, he says. Out of this population, "only three of the juveniles are white," Odunsi says.
During Black History Month, Odunsi, an African American, works particularly hard to bring up the self-esteem of his young black juvenile offenders. He does so by making what he calls a "positive impact through heritage education."
Odunsi regularly celebrates Black History Month with classic movies about the Civil Rights movement. However, this year he is incorporating his appreciation for black heritage through the rehabilitation program he runs in the Horizon Juvenile Center.
"I most recently held a group discussion about black heritage after my students read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass. We talked about what it takes to become a positive role model and put the individual ideas toward goals that can be achieved," Odunsi said.
Odunsi believes that famous black role models are important examples for young adults who are in desperate need of guidance. He emphasizes the accomplishments of important leaders in history, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
According to Odunsi, the growing number of blacks in the juvenile justice system is caused by the wide income gap between blacks and whites. He points out that this is most evident when a young adult makes his first mistake and discovers that, without representation, he is immediately incarcerated.
Odunsi concludes: "Many young blacks find themselves in prison more often than whites because they simply cannot afford the high costs of lawyers' fees. This issue needs attention. That is why it is my goal during Black History Month and every month to educate as many people as I can about these growing issues concerning young black adults."
Omid Farzanehpour is a journalism and media studies major at Rutgers-Newark.
