Tessa Duvall

For the dozens of Jacksonville kids who have taken part in a crime that ended a life, many said they weren’t looking to hurt someone; they were looking for something to do, and to maybe make a little money, too.

This article and others forthcoming on this topic are being produced as part of a project for the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism....

“Everyone from my community has to go to prison," one Jacksonville inmate wrote. "It is the way it is. It is a way of life for us. We didn't know anything else.”

Marcus Wilson remembers the first time he saw his mom use crack cocaine. He thinks he was about 9. "She was doing it off a soda can," he said.

The children who end up buried the deepest in the criminal justice system were often victims of extensive trauma before they played a part in killing others.

Prison inmates detail the crippling obstacles faced by many of the Jacksonville, Florida children involved in homicides.

This article and others forthcoming on this topic are being produced as part of a project for the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

This article and others forthcoming on this topic are being produced as part of a project for the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Other stories in this series includ

Cristian Fernandez was propelled to international notoriety when he was just 12, when he fatally beat his 2-year-old brother. But, after seven years of incarceration, how does a 19-year-old begin to move on?