As city officials, community leaders and police try to solve the problem of youth violence in Cleveland -- deadly youth violence where shootings have become commonplace -- The Sound of Ideas visited the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center to hear about the issue firsthand. Four young men incarcerated there talked about their lives on the unsafe streets. What we heard from Shawn, 19, Chris, 18, JoeJoe, 16, and AV, 18, is eye-opening, at times bleak and, honestly, frightening. (The names are pseudonyms.) Violence on their streets is a given. Guns are necessary for protection. Shoot one of ours, and one of yours gets shot. And still they profess hope for a future with good paying jobs and happy families. How to get to THAT place?
Judge Joan Synenberg, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Michael Walker, Executive Director, Partnership for a Safer Cleveland