On Monday August 31st, the PWC Mutual Aid group’s Twitter account posted a graphic [shown below] with the caption “Prince William County is planning to update the current #juvenile #detention center with a new center based on an unproven model and without examining the school-to-prison pipeline. PWC needs alternatives to incarcerating our #youth. A thread. #AbolishThePIC #NoKidsinPrisons”

The account continued the Twitter thread with a link to the Staff Report and Juvenile Detention Needs Assessment which provides details about the new juvenile detention center plan. Information in the document included data on mental health concerns, race/ethnicity, and the cost of the project.

On Tuesday September 1st, the group reached out to PW Perspective on Twitter via direct message saying “Prince William County is planning to update the current #juvenile #detention center with a new center based on an unproven model and without examining the school-to-prison pipeline. PWC needs alternatives to incarcerating our #youth. A thread. #AbolishThePIC #NoKidsinPrisons”

On Friday September 4th, we spoke with Linda Keuntje, a member of the Prince William County Mutual Aid group. As a mutual aid group they are “a flat organization” that doesn’t have “strict hierarchy roles” so that “people work on the things they are interested in.” Their “defund group” has “6 or 7 people” and the entire group has “30-40 people signed up and active to the degree they are able to be active” Keuntje highlighted that “the group was started by a bunch of youths themselves, a bunch of 20 year olds all in college, extremely active, extremely passionate and a very very diverse group.”

Regarding policing and incarceration the group has a “focus on abolition, not just reform” this means that they “don’t want to debate the Missouri Model [what the new center will utilize] versus others, we want just no detention center at all and for that money instead to be reinvested in social services that provide people with what they need before incidents [that lead to detention].”

In her point of view “the county recognizes these things [funding for social services] are needed but they don’t value providing it until a youth has had a run in with the justice system”

According to their Twitter account “Prince William County Mutual Aid calls for the Planning Study to be made public and public comments to be collected before the project moves forward. The communities most impacted by the juvenile justice system should determine what is best for our youth.”

They also believe “At a minimum, PWC’s forthcoming Racial Justice Task Force should include recommendations for distributing budget to new and enhanced social services that could eliminate the need for juvenile detention centers altogether.

Additionally, they created a draft letter which they are asking residents to send to the Board of County Supervisors. Information to call or tweet the board was also included on their social media.

On Tuesday, September 8th at 2 pm, mutual aid group members intend to speak during the Board of County Supervisors Public Comment Time against the proposal. They are encouraging residents to come speak and demand the supervisors “say no to the proposed new juvenile detention center!”