All children deserve the chance to grow and play, to trip and fall and pick themselves back up again. Prison is no home for a child and yet, on any given night in America, 6,200 children are held in adult jails and prisons. Every year, 100,000 youth are admitted into local adult facilities and prisons. This was the fate of 16-year-old Corey Webb., who was a sophomore in High School when he was charged with a 50 year prison sentence. Today, Corey, his family, and his friends are fighting to get his life back.

It started in 2010 when an accident led to his arrest. Faced with little support and no options, 16-year-old Corey was forced to plead guilty and received a 50 year prison sentence. He was tried as an adult and and sent to adult prison.The system told young Corey that he was beyond reform. That he could not learn from his mistakes and was not capable of change.

        According to University of Rochester                                   Medical Center :
                                     1.
The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.
                                     2.
In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part.
                                       3.
In teens' brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing—and not always at the same rate. That’s why when teens have overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.

Against all odds, Corey has persevered to become the best self he could possibly be in the time he has grown up in prison. He acknowledges and is sincerely sorry for the harm he caused to others at such a young age (even though no one was physically injured in this case but Corey). He has vigorously pursued his education by achieving his G.E.D and attaining numerous educational certificates with honors.:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/11AVH1kx7IPlLNo_LtssZ-sARJeUlCJGk/view?usp=drivesdk . He is a leader among his peers: He helps others with legal research after all his years of arduous legal studies. He is an extremely talented speaker and artist looking to use his story and art to change the narrative that America has given to it's incarcerated youth.

In 2022, Corey's case will be presented to the Clemency board who will decide if Corey's future will continue to be trapped behind bars. If Corey receives no relief he could return to the world as a 66-year-old man after completing his entire sentence. Corey deserves to live a life free from cages, to reunite with his family, to heal from the trauma of growing up in prison, and to live a full, healthy life.