Education: Attorney William Solomon Seeking Books And/Or Magazines To Be Donated To Juvenile Detention Center/Youth Development Center In Pitt And Edgecombe Counties

William Solomon

Yes this is long, but take a minutes and read it please. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

It seems like only yesterday my son was being born. Now he is four years old and it’s time for us to prepare for him to start kindergarten next year. Recently my wife and I toured Rocky Mount Academy to get a feeling of how we liked the program that they offer. We were impressed. I love to read and so I was impressed with the library that was available to the students and their access to technology. I started thinking back to how much I enjoyed the vast libraries of books that were available to me when I was young. There were wonderful libraries available to me at home and at my alma maters of Bullock Elementary School, West Edgecombe Middle School and South West Edgecombe High School. Having access to a wide array of reading material can open a child’s mind to all of the possibilities that the world has to offer to them.

A few days after our tour of Rocky Mount Academy, I went to the Juvenile Detention Center in Pitt County to visit with a client that I represent in my law practice. I asked him, as I do most of the young people that I represent and come in contact with, what kinds of things has he been reading when you have the time. I was pleased to hear that he does read, but he said that he has tried to read the same book more than once because they do not have a lot to choose from in the detention center. Most of the children being held in the 9 detention center across North Carolina are there because they have been charged with committing a serious crime and while they are waiting to go to trial a judge has decided that it may be too dangerous for the community to let them come home.

These are children who are sometimes at the tipping point of either becoming involved in criminal behavior in their adult life or being productive members of society. I believe that these children need and deserve to have access to as wide an array of reading material as any child in a public or private school in North Carolina. Who knows, a child in a detention center may flip through a book or a magazine and learn about a part of the world they never knew existed or discover a career path they would have never dreamed. The dreams that reading material can inspire can make the difference in weather that child wastes their life in and out of jails at tax payer expense or is sworn in as the future Governor of North Carolina.

I have spoken to the director and staff of the Detention Center in Pitt County and the director and staff physiologist at the Youth Development Center in Edgecombe County They are receptive to and excited about the idea of expanding the libraries that are available to the children there. I am asking all who read this message to consider donating books or an age appropriate magazine subscription to be added to these libraries. Be mindful that our target audience consists of children under the age of 18 and should not include objectionable content that would not be allowed in a school setting.

Donations of reading material can be made at my office – The Solomon Law Firm – 161 S. Grace Street, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. For more information please review the article in the Community Section of my web site at www.wsolomonlaw.com or call 252- 442-0348. Thank you for helping to create a better North Carolina one child at a time.

Will Solomon
The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

www.wsolomonlaw.com

The Solomon Law Firm – Open Letter from Will Solomon

NAACP supports efforts to protect children in the criminal justice system

Within the next week, the House and Senate will decide on funding levels for the next year for two important federal juvenile justice programs – the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), and the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG).  Together, these important programs help states help protect the children who have become in contact with the criminal justice system, and these programs try to identify and ease the disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minority children who come in contact with law enforcement.   The NAACP strongly supports the JJDPA and the JABG and thus we urge every member of the U.S. House and Senate to support the proposed Senate funding levels for fiscal year 2012 and to reject the House of Representatives’ proposed cuts to these vital programs.   For more information on the situation, and to learn how you can advocate, please review the attached Action Alert.   Thank you,   Hilary   Hilary O. Shelton Director, NAACP Washington Bureau and      Senior VP for Advocacy and Policy (202) 463-2940

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