Honoring Strong Arms of MS

In Strong Arms of JXN, for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed adults use what they’ve learned to help youth avoid mak­ing the same mis­takes. The pro­gram itself has two main objec­tives: 1) keep young peo­ple from drop­ping out of school; and 2) keep young peo­ple away from neg­a­tive inter­ac­tions with law enforce­ment. Both sce­nar­ios are pre­cur­sors to lat­er crim­i­nal activ­i­ty, research indi­cates.

Strong Arms of JXN’s Co-direc­tor Ben­ny Ivey and adult men­tor John Knight share pasts scarred by drug and gang activ­i­ty. After exit­ing prison, Knight got his life back on track and grew deter­mined to dis­suade young peo­ple from fol­low­ing in his ear­li­er destruc­tive footsteps.