Law Center News
Law center student’ s project gains acceptance as forthcoming bill in New Jersey legislature
Law Center student, Shaylynn Bivens, was very busy this summer. While others may have been enjoying vacations or taking summer classes, Bivens was searching for ways to implement change. As a result, she succeeded in getting her class project accepted by a member of the New Jersey legislature as a forthcoming bill.
Bivens is a native of Paterson, New Jersey and earned a B.A. in political science from Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. She is currently the director of constituent services and community relations and legislative aid for the 35th Legislative District Assembly Office.
Bivens’ project establishes “New Jersey Research & Tracing Task Force” to research NJ’s historical relationship with slavery and how that relationship has attributed to over sentencing and imprisonment of Black Youth. She spent the summer examining task force and studied the connection between slavery and the over sentencing of people of color.
The forthcoming bill will examine the institution of slavery within the State of New Jersey and study the lingering negative effects of slavery. The bill will also research the influence of criminal sentencing on living African American youth and on society. Bivens proposed this task force should look at how law and racism are intertwined in the criminal justice system in New Jersey and develop a comprehensive action plan for addressing the state’s harmful youth incarceration racial disparities.
She notes that black youth imprisonment and disproportionate treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system have flourished. It is through her hard work that she was able to accomplish her goals within this study and have her class project accepted.
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