After my teen-age son got locked up for drug and behavioral problems, I learned the brutality of our state's notorious youth jails. That's why I joined parents in Lafayette and across the state to demand less incarceration of our kids, and the closure of the state's most inhumane facility, the Tallulah youth prison.

My son needs counseling and treatment, not cold prison walls. Just four days before his court date, my boy tried to take his own life. But, instead of counseling, he suffers daily abuse from the very guards who are supposed to be protecting him.

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