This story is one of several presented as part of this week’s Juvenile Detention package.
Tsegaye Gebru remembers the autumn he spent sitting down with angst-filled East African teenagers. “Why do you do this?” he asked the kids, some of whom had been caught shoplifting by the police. They cried or apologized, Gebru recalled, chuckling in the Horn of Africa Services center, tucked away in an unassuming office building in Columbia City.
Gebru serves as executive director at the organization, which provides educational programs and advocates for East African immigrant and refugee families.
In 2015, Gebru and his team of case managers spent September through November ferrying 23 at-risk youth through a justice diversion program, held in partnership with the King County Juvenile Detention Center. The short-term pilot, funded by a nonrenewable $23,000 federal Justice Assistance Grant, sought to prevent first-time offenders from interacting with a justice system that disproportionately affects black youth. After three months, the funding for the program ended.
