Dr. Surajit Khanna
Dr. Surajit Khanna is an attorney and a “servant of the underserved”. He is an advocate for the voice of the voiceless, especially for young adults. His focus is mainly on young adults issues and implementation of his recently founded Post Incarceration Juvenile Justice Reformation Act Initiative, called in short Returning Youth Initiative. This initiative provides young adults with a pathway to be reintegrated into society, pursuing a new and productive life after being released from incarceration.
His Story
While representing a young returning citizen through his law firm, he felt called to create a program that would truly make a difference across the country. This calling led to the creation of his Returning Youth Initiative. This initiative is sparked by Dr. Khanna’s realization that young adults, especially people of color, have a high rate of recidivism. The national average is a 55% re-arrest rate within 12 months. He decided to look deeper into this issue to understand what was needed. In the process, he found in-jail programs established as part of the Criminal Justice Reformation Act of 1974, reauthorized in 2018, have been grossly ineffective in rehabilitating those released from incarceration. In addition, the Act did not provide for post incarceration support and rehabilitation; half-way houses were operated simply as an extension of incarceration; and post incarceration programs, operated by several organizations, were not designed to successful place post incarcerated youths back into society. This resulted in a revolving door of arrests and re-arrest among underserved youth.
These young adults are basically “love deprived” and even though they have been released from incarceration, they still suffer from “Mental Incarceration.” In effect, they see no positive path forward for their lives. The isolation they experienced while confined continues when released. Dr. Khanna knew that something has to be done.
His wish is to change society’s perspective of released young adults so they recognize their own value, and flourish in their own communities. He believes in providing solutions that provide a better and safer future for children and young adults, preventing them from being incarcerated. He plans to take this initiative in all 3142 counties in USA.
Dr. Khanna’s legal and management work experience in several multinational fortune 500 companies around the globe, in addition to his time as a senior executive in New York City under the administration of the former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, provides support in the execution of various initiatives to handle child safety issues including Human Trafficking, Abduction, Abuse, Bullying, Online Safety, and more.