Meet Michael Turner | Founder of Phoenix Ranch Foundation
My name is Michael Turner, founder of the Phoenix Ranch Foundation. Incarcerated when I was 14 years old, I spent half of high school without my freedom. It was during my time in youth prison that I dreamed of ranches that would eventually replace youth prisons with healthy, loving, nurturing environments where off-course youths can re-orient toward bright, successful, promising futures.
As a 14-year-old, I promised myself that I would make this dream a reality. From that day forward this promise has been the fire in my belly, the catalyst, the motivation to achieve the station in life necessary to honor the dream that I made to the 14-year-old me.
Thirty-nine years later I have reached that point and am now making this dream a reality. Today is not the end of youth prisons. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning of this barbaric, counter-productive practice.
A Message From the Founder
Our declaration of independence begins with the following:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
That they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
When children are locked in cages, their right to liberty is stripped away, and in most cases, so is their pursuit of happiness. In doing so, we are also robbing them of their lives — the very rights our founding fathers set forth as the bedrock of our democracy.
Jailing tens of thousands of children each year undermines the core principles of liberty and happiness. This is not the vision our founding fathers had for us. The time to act is now—it is long past time to honor their legacy and protect the future generations who will inherit our planet.