FFLIC’S HISTORY
Our organization began in 2000 when parents came together in a home in Baton Rouge to share stories of outrage and fear, and to support one another in advocating for their children who were caught up in Louisiana’s brutal and ineffective youth prison system.
“Parents wanted to do something about the problem – something larger than just get help for their child. They wanted to change the system so that no one’s child suffered what theirs had suffered.”
This was precisely what the struggle had been missing – the voices and first-hand experiences of parents and youth who had survived the injustices and trauma of Louisiana’s youth incarceration system and were now demanding change.
FFLIC made their public debut in September of 2001 when they organized the “Mock Jazz Funeral,” a march that adapted a New Orleans tradition to mourn the lost freedom and departing dreams of their children. Then, in 2003, FFLIC had its first major success. The Juvenile Justice Reform Act (Act 1225) was passed to overhaul the youth incarceration system and close the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth, one of the nation’s most notorious youth prisons.
Since the landmark closing of Tallulah, FFLIC has led the charge for prison abolition to liberate children and build communities where young people can thrive. Twenty years ago, Louisiana was primed to become a forerunner in youth justice with the passage of Act 1225 and its mandate for equitable and coordinated youth-serving systems- its messages were visionary as seen in the current national demands for racial equity, anti-policing, and mental health in schools. But the promises of Act 1225, which was supposed to transform the justice system into a model of care and support for children, never happened. In the years following, parents, youth, and advocates have participated in numerous events, strategies, and tactics to change the youth justice system. The deeper that FFLIC delves into policy research to illuminate the history of Act 1225, the more we unearth about the retrograde historical legacies persistent in Louisiana’s legislation. This analysis is critical to our ability to leverage power at major decision-making tables, educate policymakers, provide leadership opportunities for impacted people, and hold public systems accountable to their mandate to make families whole. For example, Act 1225 also created an important oversight body for all youth justice reform efforts in Louisiana called the Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission on which FFLIC serves as permanent vice chair.
FFLIC hasn’t given up on the vision of a complete transformation. We continue to demand front-end investments in our children so that we as a community can be stronger and safer. We know that had Louisiana implemented the reforms promised in 2003, it would have become a national model for youth justice. Instead, the state ranks at the bottom nationally in childhood outcomes—in education, health, and economic well-being. FFLIC remains steadfast in realizing our founders’ dream to shut down youth prisons and stop more families from experiencing the enduring trauma of incarceration. FFLIC is guided by their vision of thriving and powerful Black youth and families in Louisiana with community-based services and educational systems that are rooted in our shared principles of racial justice, human rights, and self-determination for all Black families.