Constitutional Law

Youth PROMISE ? Going Viral with Robin Wright!

By Jennifer Bellamy, Washington Legislative Office

Earlier this week, acclaimed actress Robin Wright was in Washington, D.C., for the premiere of a new video that supports the Youth PROMISE Act. This legislation, which is currently pending in Congress, seeks to address youth violence by providing resources to communities to pursue comprehensive, evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies to decrease juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity.

Instead of funneling more young people into the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems at great cost, the Youth PROMISE Act proactively focuses on prevention practices that will not only address the underlying root causes of youth violence and gang activity, but also yields impressive cost savings in the amount of federal and state money spent on incarceration. In short, instead of the usual reactionary after the fact approach, this legislation proactively engages communities with young people to prevent crimes and acts of violence from ever occurring in the first place.

In addition to Robin Wright, the new video features an all-star lineup of famous faces all expressing their support for the Youth PROMISE Act, including Russell Simmons, former NFL star Jim Brown, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former View cohost Star Jones. In an interview with Politico, Wright described the basis of her strong support for the legislation, stating, 'You see the difference in building a nurturing environment involves simple asking questions, rather than throwing the cuffs on them...and thus fueling the beast.'

In addition to being on hand for the video premiere, Wright showed that she can go toe-to-toe with any D.C. lobbyist by meeting with a number of Members of Congress, including the powerful chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), to personally make the case for passage of the legislation.

Please join with Robin Wright in urging Congress to act on this important, common-sense legislation this year.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).