Tyler Williams

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: Tell us about yourself. 
  
TYLER: My name is Tyler Williams. I am 24 years old, and I first entered the juvenile justice system when I was 13 years old. Whenever I entered the juvenile justice system, I started incurring my fines and fees, beginning first whenever I was being sentenced. I got out a month before my 19th birthday. And then once I was released, I kept accruing fees, such as probationary fees and stuff afterward. I incurred over a thousand dollars worth of debt, and it took me several years to be able to pay that off both in the facility and once I was released. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: What was it like to be arrested at age 13? Were there adults to support you? 
  
TYLER: When I was 13 years old, during my time after I was arrested, it really started hitting me whenever I was taken from Oklahoma City up to Junction City in transport. That's where I incurred my fine of $800. And the whole time I was scared. I mean, going from home back up to Junction City was a scary ride, especially being in the back of the cop car and shackles and seeing everyone on the highway, staring at you, just a kid in a cop car in shackles, driving hours to the next facility, that was nerve-wracking. 
  
When I was in county, I didn't have any support systems. My family was busy working and unable to afford even to come and see me during court. So, everything I ended up dealing with alone, I ended up going to see the judge alone. I ended up meeting my probation officer and even my attorney alone, 13 years old, and doing all the paperwork. And it was daunting. I mean, during the sentencing, just unsure of what was even going to happen with my life. 
  
I remember when I first saw the security gates outside of KJCC, I thought, "Damn, this looks like a prison, and I'm going in there? And that's going to be my new home for the next six years?" And it terrified me, you know for a 13-year-old kid to go through that. I mean, I'm still healing from it today.

 

 

 

 

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DEBT FREE JUSTICE: What were some aspects of the juvenile justice system that had damaging effects, that have caused you to need to heal from that time? 
  
TYLER: I went in at the age of 13, I was considered a med level risk youth, according to the youth level assessment score that they gave me when I first entered. 
  
The youth level system is a questionnaire put together by the Kansas Department of Corrections and the Juvenile Justice Authority to gauge the level of risk of the youth based on their emotional criteria history, as well as their case severity. And that is the assessment used by the facilities to gauge where they need to place the youth. 
  
Honestly, I was still a kid, 13 years old, still impressionable. I mean, I was young, energetic, curious, and still learning about the world. And I was placed into juvie at a young age, still learning and curious. And, I was placed with a bunch of literal violent offenders. I mean, some who were worse, doing longer sentences, doing juvenile life. And I was surrounded by that. 
  
The failure in the juvenile justice system is that we put a lot of low-level and mid-level youth in with high-risk and high-level youth who have had serious offenses. I mean, there has been research that has shown that low-level risk youth when placed with high-risk youth, become high-risk youth. I mean, it's a learned thing. And we're literally kids just placed in a pit of suffering, with each other. I mean, you're going to do what you can to survive. And when you're stuck in survival mode, you never really get out. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: What are some of the fees that you incurred while you were in the juvenile justice system? 
  
TYLER: Pre adjudication, I ended up accruing a fee of $800 to transport me from Oklahoma City to Junction City. And then afterward, I incurred a fee such as violent offender registry and probationary costs, such as urinary analysis and upkeep. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: As a juvenile offender, were you the one expected to pay those fees? 
  
TYLER: I was the one expected to pay those. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: Can you estimate how much you’ve had to pay since you first entered the system? 
  
TYLER: So, the total amount of fines and fees that I ended up accruing in the Kansas juvenile justice system was $1,064 and 69 cents, post-adjudication. Now, that does not include the violent offender registry fees or the urinary analysis fees. Those were $20 either every month or every quarter. 
  
DEBT FREE JUSTICE: What did they require you to do to pay your fines and fees? 
  
TYLER: So, I began making payments on my fines and fees that I accrued in court, two years from the end of my stay in the Kansas juvenile correctional complex. At that ...