About Sharletta

After the tragic loss of her three year old son, Sharletta Evans became a local community activist and motivational speaker. She first began her grassroots efforts towards gang prevention in her backyard, leading her to form the Re-Creation Center, an anti-gang nonprofit. Because of the attention of her almost immediate public declaration of forgiveness towards her son’s shooters, Sharletta turned the spotlight both personally and politically towards fairness for juvenile offenders. Sharletta’s testimony was shared at the Supreme Court case of Miller vs. Alabama, in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for juveniles to receive life without parole sentences. She also heavily campaigned for HB 1271, limiting direct file cases Colorado prosecutors can call against juveniles. HB 11-1032, a Colorado bill that expands restorative justice for adults, was also signed into law in 2011, and Sharletta was an instrumental part of getting the bill passed while working with Representative Pete Lee (D-Colorado). Currently, she is a Restorative Justice facilitator and mediator and she has also been a participant; In May of 2012, she met with the man who pulled the trigger that fired the fatal bullet, killing her son, making her one of the few people in the country who has been on both sides of the Restorative Justice process. Sharletta is in the process of writing her life experience and sharing her world changing story of the tragic loss of her 3-year-old son, while she travels and speaks about her very own restorative justice dialogue with the teenage offender. She also shares the process of grief and forgiveness, juvenile justice, bridging the gap through the restorative justice, guilt and denial that the offender and victim may experience due to a crisis.