There are 42 teenage inmates who attend school in jail.
More than half of them are there for murder.
Sudden gasps filled the air when Corrections Officer Deon Johnson shared that information.
“Oh my God,” a woman mumbled Thursday in the auditorium at Florida State College of Jacksonville’s North Campus.
Shocked looks, heads shaking side to side followed from the audience attending a community forum on youth violence.
And there were four new enrollees last week, three from the case of a murdered cab driver.
“That is not something to celebrate,” said Johnson, “that’s something to mourn.”
Johnson, a 20-plus year veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, has run the juvenile education program the past two years.
His voice was one of four on the FSCJ stage taking part in Mayor Lenny Curry’s first forum on violence in the community.
Sheriff Mike Williams, State Attorney Angela Corey and Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti rounded out the panel that offered insight into issues facing the community and its children when it came to crime.
Progress has been made in some areas, the group said.
Out-of-school suspensions have dramatically decreased and the system’s conduct code is one of the most progressive in the country, said Vitti.
Programs like mental health court are now available to help teenagers, said Corey.
Violent felons with some of the “hardest cases” are learning skill sets at the sheriff’s office’s Jacksonville Re-entry Center. Williams said that allows them to come back into the community with a chance, if they make good decisions.
The conversation format was question-and-answer with moderator W.C. Gentry, chair of the Jacksonville Journey board, followed by questions from the audience.
There were some common elements throughout.
More parental responsibility is needed, starting at an early age if a difference is going to be made.
Johnson said many of the kids he sees don’t have that guidance at home and they turn to gangs who show them attention and end up becoming role models.
Parents need to instill respect for their elders, every elder, said Corey.
Williams said having as much family structure as possible would be the basis from which real change occurs.
Curry sat in the front row of the audience listening.
It was the end of a day that included him talking with residents in a Northeast Jacksonville neighborhood. He was joined by city and JEA officials who met with residents and looked for blight.
After the panel discussion, Curry said he learned a lot during the day, but mainly that gaps remain. Those gaps will have to be addressed through many ways, he said, but the Jacksonville Journey anti-crime initiative is a way the city can implement more prevention and intervention programs.
Thursday’s forum was announced in December, a month before January’s spate of murders, including the drive-by shooting death of 22-month-old Aiden McClendon.
Two more forums on violence have been planned, the city announced. The next is Feb. 29 at the University of North Florida and the final one is March 24 at Edward Waters College.
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