Photo of Carlos Simpson Sr. with two young people he is honored to work with.
Meet CJCJ Staff Carlos Simpson Sr.
We are pleased to introduce to you Carlos Simpson Sr. Carlos is one of our Sentencing Planners for our Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP) in San Francisco. Over 30 years ago in 1993, CJCJ developed DDAP to reduce unnecessary youth detention and lengths of stay, and to increase community engagement with youth coming out of the juvenile justice system. DDAP was the first evidence-based pre-adjudication diversion program for high risk youth in the nation. By targeting the highest risk youth in San Francisco’s juvenile detention center, the program was able to avoid the common problem of“net-widening” that commonly undermines traditional diversion programs.
DDAP has been replicated throughout the nation and is a critical program for young people involved in the justice-system. Below you will learn a bit about Carlos, and find out why his work is important to him. Thank you Carlos for sharing a bit of your story with us, we, and especially the young people you work with, are lucky to have you at CJCJ/DDAP!
Name & PGP: Carlos Simpson Sr, He and Him
Job Title: Sentencing Planner/Case Manager Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP)
Behind the scenes fact about you: Even though I have spent the majority of my life on concrete, I really am a nature guy. Nothing like going to the beach, a river, lake or the woods and take of my shoes and get barefoot and recharge the soul.
How would you describe your job to a friend? The ultimate gift of righting my wrongs, I make living amends for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused growing up and to have the blessed opportunity to share my knowledge, wisdom and strength is a blessing. And to have an office in the same building that I had a jail cell is amazing.
Why is this work important to you? Because it’s a whole lot easier healing broken boys than broken men
Dreaming out loud: If you were given unlimited funds to build out part of your program, what would you create and why? I would train and hire 50 more men from the same upbringing and train and mold them so we could have an abundance of credible messengers that could relate to these youth and provide a safe place to talk about emotional intelligence and mental health.
You can learn more about CJCJ’s programs for justice-involved individuals of all ages including women, children, young people on our website under the Our Programs page.