When she was 12, Jamie Savoy let out a cry for help that she says no one answered.
Facing abuse from an older adult, Savoy says she lashed out in self-defense and was repaid with a two-year stint in juvenile hall before getting turned back to the streets. The pain of being treated like a criminal at such a young age, however, set her on a self-destructive path of more crime. After she turned 18, the criminal justice system claimed her again, labeling Savoy a felon for life.
Twenty-five years after her first arrest, those scars are why she’s working with Sacramento Area Congregations Together to build support for California’s Proposition 57.
“When I was a child, they never put me in the care of someone who could help change my thoughts and direction,” she recalled. “After what I’d been through, it created a vicious cycle.”