Girl Talk:
Incarcerated Young Women Speak Out
by Kari Lydersen

As the girls sit around the table eating chips and cookies, they talk about what's bugging them—being treated like a number instead of a human being, for one. One complains about how she's heard that youth in juvenile detention in Chicago will soon be identified by numbers instead of names, like the adults in Cook County jail. Some of them are upset about cliques, jealousy and backstabbing among young women in the detention center. Others have complaints about young men, while others are having a hard time being separated from a partner. They also talk about their plans, hopes and goals for the future. One girl wants to own a boat and live comfortably with her partner. Another wants to be a lawyer. While most teenage girls deal with such issues, they are exacerbated for these incarcerated girls who feel trapped in an uncaring system and lack control over their daily lives.

Youth often have a hard time getting their voices heard. In juvenile detention, it's even harder. Youth are subject to strict, often arbitrary rules and regulations and branded as people who have "messed up." For girls who make up the minority of a youth detention center designed for boys it is harder still. Girltalk comes in. Girl Talk is a grassroots non-profit program founded 12 years ago to create a safe and stimulating space for girls in juvenile detention in Chicago where they can just talk—with each other, with program leaders who know first hand what they're going through, and with guests who rap with them about self-esteem, art, music, media, health and other topics.

Girl Talk currently runs twice-weekly programs for 30 to 50 girls in Chicago's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, also known as Audi Home. A smaller leadership program meets on Fridays. In the past it has also held regular programming for girls in residential programs like the Neon Street Home in Rogers Park.

When girls are released from detention they can join the Talk Out program, which includes paid internship opportunities. At any level of the criminal justice system, one of the biggest problems is that people are cast adrift with no resources or follow-up after they are released. Recidivism rates for girls leaving detention in Chicago is 60 percent within six months, according to one study. By involving girls in continuing art and leadership projects and political action, Talk Out aims to change those statistics. However, the internship program has not been adequately funded yet; Girl Talk members hope to secure more funding to make it into a viable job option for girls coming out of detention.

Girl Talk programs introduce participants to a wide variety of projects. The organization has been working with the Chicago Health and Medicine Policy Research Group to develop an Incarcerated Health Care Bill of Rights demanding improved health care for incarcerated girls.

"We gathered input from the girls in detention and then turned it over to the girls in Talk Out to work with," said Girl Talk administrator Carolyn Gordon. "We participated in lobby days in the spring and told legislators about it. We've had meetings with house staff (at the center), and we're planning meetings with the decision-makers and county commissioners."

The girls reported that they want and need better access to information about hygiene and nutrition, more time with family members (including, in some cases, their own children), and access to prompt medical attention.

They also participated in the Two Tiers Story Project, where girls in detention worked with poets and artists to create art and text compositions which were shown on the CTA.

"They brought up issues about not being heard, about wishing they'd made different decisions," said Gordon. "There's a lot of hopelessness, but also a lot of girls knowing they learned a lesson and are now on the right path."

Girl Talk programs frequently use art as a form of empowerment and getting the participants' message out. They created a mural entitled "Freedom," showing a woman's face on a $1,000 bill and brown and white clasped hands, and a memorial quilt with panels for friends and family members killed by gun violence. For a Youth Summit held at Truman College, incarcerated girls produced video testimony including personal stories, singing, or poetry. Confidentiality requirements prevented them from showing their faces, so they designed artistic masks to wear on camera. Girl Talk often partners with other non-profits for specific projects, including a recent collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Gardener's Extension Program, through which they planted an herb and flower garden at the detention center. Sexual health and empowerment are also frequent topics, with popular education and teach-ins on STDs and attitudes toward sexuality. The organization also makes a continual effort to improve opportunities and conditions for the young women at the detention center. This is more important than ever, as recent investigations have shown rampant misconduct and abuse by staff at the Cook County juvenile detention center, including favoritism in hiring unqualified applicants, beatings and staged fights among youth detainees.

"In the detention center the staff doesn't have respect for them for the most part," said Gordon. "So for them to be able to say 'This is what we think is wrong, this is what we think should change' is an amazing experience for them."

During Girl Talk meetings at the Neon Street residential facility in Rogers Park last year, one girl asked others where they hoped to be in ten years. In an environment where they are so frequently confronted with their past and the things that have gone wrong in their lives, an outlet that encourages them to dream of the future can be priceless.

"I want to be living in Cancun with a yacht and a timeshare in Jamaica," said Sara Ray, then 17. "I want to be rich and feed homeless people. And I want to open a chain of programs like Neon House, an alternative to Audy Home for girls in incarceration."

Deiarra Herring, then 16, said, "I want a part time job as a bartender, and I want a home in a quiet neighborhood to raise some kids."

Jessica Logwood, who wrote a story for a local newspaper about their answers, summed up her own hopes and advice to others in her situation:

"Where do you want to be? Most people have no clue. Do you? Have you given it any thought, dear? Don't you want to have a good life? You laugh at school, but who is really the fool? Cameras are all over so the days of dealing drugs are almost over. Jail - is that the place for you? Burger King and White Castle, is that your style? Or would you rather have a degree and own your own business? Take advantage of your youth. We are lucky to be young because we can still change what we have done. Our time has come to rise."

For more information contact girltalkjtdc@yahoo.com