How New Jersey Department of Corrections Ignores Transgender Women Safety Concerns
Today there was a fight, yesterday a inmate stabbed another in the face, the day prior there was a fight. How do I feel? Scared
Demi is an incarcerated juvenile justice reform advocate seeking to dismantle the foster-system-to-prison pipeline. She has learned as much as she can about the juvenile justice system during her time in prison, and she is ready to fight for her freedom so that she can take over this organization to fight for the rights of others.
Demi’s name was not nor had it ever been David. But that was the name her court-appointed public defender called her as she mistakenly read someone else’s case file. Only 16 years old and succumbing to the social pressure to be a boy, Demi’s actual charges for manslaughter stemmed from an act of misdirected hostility in which she killed her former foster father whom she wrongly blamed at the time for the sexual abuse she suffered while under his care.
Demi was thrown into the foster system at the age of 8 after being removed from her household because the beatings her father gave her made her unable to sit down at school. After bouncing around the foster system, she ended up being placed in a foster home where she faced sexual abuse from another foster child. When she reported the abuse, she was told that there was no place in the foster system for a black boy.
After leaving that abusive situation, she kept bouncing around the foster system, until she eventually ended up homeless. While on the streets, she returned to the foster home where she faced sexual abuse, got in an altercation with her foster father, and stabbed him to death.
With an overworked public defender managing her case, Demi was pressured into taking a plea that waived her rights as a juvenile and sentenced her to 30 years with a 25 year minimum in an adult prison as a child. Since then, she has devoted her life to making amends for her actions and fixing the institutions that failed her.
Since receiving her sentence, Demi has devoted herself to serving others. During her time in prison, she has received paralegal training, and has helped other inmates with legal paperwork to redress their grievances. She has helped other inmates to receive gender affirming items, hormone replacement therapy, and gender appropriate housing.
She has also built bridges with numerous elected officials and nonprofits to craft legislation addressing the broken juvenile justice system, the prison system, and the foster care system. When Demi is freed from incarceration, she intends to take over this organization and devote her life to reforming the juvenile justice system.
Today there was a fight, yesterday a inmate stabbed another in the face, the day prior there was a fight. How do I feel? Scared
**WARNING this massage contains language and incidents of abuse and maybe triggering to those who have like Demi endured trauma. January 23, 2024 Dear Ms.
I woke up today….And lately its been a fight ….fight after fight its vexing and often the root of my depression…. “Demi how are you
I don’t know if there is a word for it. There was this shared realization in the room that a grave injustice was being done
Today there was a fight, yesterday a inmate stabbed another in the face, the day prior there was a fight. How do I feel? Scared
Just this weekend another inmate at Garden State Youth Correctional Facility lost his life on what is assumed to be an overdose, was a young
Justice For Demi is managed by a team of advocates who assist Demi in getting her story out there.