MONROE - Standing outside the entrance to the New Jersey Training School for Boys, Ryan P. Haygood had a message for the 150 boys locked far from view off the two-lane roadway where ornate ironwork announces the "State Home for Boys."

"We needed to be here so that we could tell our young people in Jamesburg that we see you. We know you are in there and we have come to care for you," said Haygood, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice that Wednesday launched a campaign to close the youth prison.

"We are seeking to close this institution which for a century and a half has not served our young people well," said Haygood before a large diverse group about the plan to close the New Jersey Training School for Boys, referred to as "Jamesburg," New Jersey's largest youth prison for boys, as well as the Female Secure Care and Intake Facility in Bordentown, known as "Hayes."

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Haygood said the rally served to apologize to the young people and correct a system, started 150 years ago.

"One hundred and fifty years is enough, 150 years is enough, 150 years is enough," said Haygood, adding that he recently spoke with members of the Newark Boys Chorus School about the campaign and the racial disparity in which, of the 222 juveniles incarcerated in three New Jersey facilities, only 13 are white.

Haygood said one of the male chorus members told him that's because black children are viewed as criminals, not kids.

"If Jamesburg is to close, and it will, and if Hayes is to close, and it will, is has to happen from the ground up in our communities," Haygood said.

Haygood said the institute, which is working with the Youth Justice New Jersey Coalition, also has a longer-term strategy that looks at the Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility in Annandale, Hunterdon County. He said the early part of the effort is focused on Jamesburg and Hayes because they are not full.

He said the New Jersey Training School for Boys, with a capacity, has about 150 in custody. Hayes, with a capacity of 48 girls, has eight in custody.

He said other states have smaller facilities — closer to where the kids live — that focus on rehabilitating the kids.

He said Jamesburg and Hayes are not working for the kids. If they were, he said there wouldn't be such a high recidivism rate, with about one-third of the kids returning after three years.

"The Juvenile Justice Commission has a long history of working with community partners and advocates, and has received national recognition for its efforts in juvenile justice reform, having been designated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as its national model for implementation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative," said a statement from commission Wednesday when asked about the rally to close the two state facilities the commission runs.

"The JJC is proud of the progress made thus far, and will continue to do everything in its power to further improve outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system."

Monroe resident Susan MacDonnell, who attends a Unitarian Universalist Church in Princeton, said she chairs a criminal justice reform task force that advocates for justice reform.

"This is a huge issue," said MacDonnell, noting that although she has lived in Monroe for five years, she never knew the youth prison existed because it's off the beaten track. She is also concerned about large number of children of color in correctional facilities.

"It's a wake-up call for me," she added. "This is part of the school to prison pipeline."

"I thought it was very important to represent my peers," said Piney Arp, 19, of Highland Park, noting that he saw several signs advocating education, instead of incarceration.

Seth Kaper-Dale, pastor of the Reformed Church of Highland Park and the Green Party gubernatorial candidate, said about 25 people from the church attended the rally.

"Anytime a system is set up and is totally unfair racewise, we need to challenge it," he said. "Anytime a system is unfair to children, we need to challenge it. In the case of youth prisons in New Jersey, it's both of those issues are coming together at the same time."

He added that if you are in a youth prison, it becomes hard to imagine a future that doesn't include a correction facility. He said many of the kids in youth prison later become adult inmates.

Retha Onitiri, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice youth decarceration campaign manager, said the mission is transform New Jersey's youth incarceration system into a community-based system.

"We are calling for the closing of Jamesburg, and Hayes, the state girls youth prison, and most importantly we are calling for reinvesting funds from closure into a community-based program for youth that provides intensive wraparound services," she said.

Onitiri said the New Jersey Training School for Boys opened on June 28, 1867 with the intent to reform and rehabilitate. She said first boy to arrive was a 12-year-old orphan committed for petty thief and lying.

By 1938, there were 548 boys at the facility mostly coming from the urban communities of Camden, Trenton, Elizabeth, Paterson, with 41 percent black, she said. Most had been committed for petty larceny and truancy.

"Today, we are dealing with extreme racial disparity, high recidivism, high operation costs," said Onitiri.

Haygood said about $200,000 a year is spent to incarcerate each youth.

"There is still a lack of funding for community-based programming. So today, on June 28, 2017, we are launching this campaign to say 150 years is enough of a failed experiment," Onitiri said. "Let's start by closing Jamesburg and Hayes and reinvesting in a community-based system of care."

And for young people who must be kept outside of the home in secure facilities, she's calling for small secured facilities closer to home, with more therapeutic, rehabilitative, wraparound services.

She said rehabilitation cannot take place when parents are too far from their children.

Haygood noted that of the approximately 500 youth released from the state youth prisons in 2012, 80 percent were rearrested within three years and 33 percent returned to youth correctional facilities within that same time period.

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335; srussell@mycentraljersey.com