The Beat Within (Wikipedia Entry)
The Founders
In the mid 1990’s David Inocencio, a social worker who began spending hours inside the San Francisco Juvenile Hall units, founded the project that gave birth to the magazine, “The Beat Within.”[1] Inocencio gained entry into the juvenile halls through working for the public defender's office in San Francisco's Youth Guidance Center (now know as the Juvenile Probation Department) and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ)[2].
David Inocencio began facilitating writing workshops (more detail) with incarcerated youth. In 1996, he asked the youth participants to write about the murder of the famous Oakland rapper, [[Tupac Shakur ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur]. In a 2005 SF Gate article, Inocencio reported the following about the workshop experience on Tupac’s death: "I was really moved by the writing…I typed it all up and copied it so all the (juvenile hall) units could read it and share their pain for their loss of Tupac." The first official Beat Within magazine was born[1].
and reported in the San Francisco Weekly (Chronicle?) that he was “quote – compelled to carry inside the halls to the community and beyond,” when he recognized the quality of writing and the power of the
The idea that led to The Beat Within was initiated by David Inocencio, a social worker who visited the San Francisco juvenile hall units. He wa
Contributors
David Inocencio Sandy Close Michael Kroll
- ^ The Beat Within website – www.thebeatwithin.org
- ^ http://www.cjcj.org/ - CJCJ website. Originally NCIA. Based in San Francisco with offices in Oakland and Washington DC. It’s an organization that provides direct service, policy research, and technical assistance related to the U.S. criminal justice system.