David Johnson was 16 years old when he faced his first criminal charge in a North Carolina court that considered him an adult.
He remembers being overwhelmed by the proceedings, uncertain of what it would mean to take a plea or to spend years in prison — and to end up with a permanent criminal record. After all, he says, he was just a kid.
“I didn’t realize the consequences that it could have for me down the line,” he said.
Today, Johnson is an outreach worker with Bull City United in Durham, where he focuses on discouraging violence in the neighborhoods where he grew up. He tells teenagers about how he picked up his first adult charge for a stolen car, then at 17 was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and served nearly 10 years in prison.
[For more of this story, written by Sarah Barr, go to http://jjie.org/2017/04/05/act...slation-this-year-2/]
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