JOIN THE MARCH 4th
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST
 VIEW SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE PSA
Across the country, students, teachers, faculty and other workers, along with concerned parents, community activists and organizations, will be using the week of March 4 to strike decisively to defend public education and the right to pursue higher learning. What began as a movement in California, is now sweeping the country.
The effects of the economic crisis have been felt by all. Hundreds of thousands have faced having their homes foreclosed on or being evicted. Millions have lost their jobs and have added to the ranks of unemployed, especially people of color. Many families face hunger on a daily basis.
The crisis has not abated but continues like a storm. Federal, state and local governments are now cutting back on vital social services; closing schools; decreasing funding for education, health care and other needs; and laying off more workers.
IN BALTIMORE--The Algebra Project is leading the way!
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS--COLLEGE STUDENTS--YOUTH
COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS, PARENTS, UNION MEMBERS COME OUT
Students & Youth need our support!
MARCH TO END THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE.
DEMAND $100 million for YOUTH JOBS, NOT JAILS
On March 4, Thursday, Meet at Camden Yards -- 10 A.M.
March to 300 Gay Street AKA 'Baby Bookings'.
Inside 'Baby Bookings' students and their supporters will be participating in civil disobedience to demand that $100 million of the $300 Million that is going to be spent on building and rehabilitating 3 new youth jails instead be diverted to youth jobs and education.
The Bail Out the People Movement will be participating. For more information call: 443-909-8964
We will be putting signs together on Wednesday night--right after Karate at 8 P.M. at 2011 N. Charles St. Lower Level. Help is needed!
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CLOSING SCHOOLS BUILDING JAILS: CAN STOP BLACK JUVENILES FROM SUCCESS!:
By Marsha Reeves-Jews
The State of Maryland, professes to have the highest rate of college graduates, is the 'Hub' for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, yet, the majority of Black people, juveniles, are not being educated in this knowledge based society.
John Ruskin said, 'Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.'
Black children in underserved communities need your voice, your outrage, your disgust at this despicable mandate by the leaders of this state. Why are there more Black children in the penal system? Why are there more schools being closed? Where are the schools that are being closed? Why are we tolerating this growth of the Prison Industrial Complex?
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POLICING IN SCHOOLS:
DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT
FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS
AN ACLU WHITE PAPER
BY CATHERINE Y. KIM AND I. INDIA GERONIMO
PUBLISHED AUGUST 2009
INTRODUCTION
K-12 public schools across the country have begun to deploy law enforcement agents on school grounds in growing numbers. Although there are no current national figures for the number of such officers, in 2004, 60 percent of high school teachers reported armed police officers stationed on school grounds,1 and in 2005, almost 70 percent of public school students ages 12 to 18 reported that police officers or security guards patrol their hallways.
Frequently referred to as 'School Resource Officers' or SROs, these agents are often sworn police officers employed by the local police department and assigned to patrol public school hallways full-time. In larger jurisdictions such as Los Angeles and Houston, these officers may be employed directly by the school district.
Without addressing the question of whether police officers should be deployed to schools in the first instance, this White Paper posits that if they are deployed, they must be provided with the tools necessary to ensure a safe school environment while respecting the rights of students and the overall school climate.
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Improper school-based arrests and referrals to law enforcement have a devastating impact on children. Studies show that being arrested has detrimental psychological effects on the child; nearly doubles the odds of dropping out of school, and, if coupled with a court appearance, nearly quadruples the odds of dropout; lowers standardized test scores; reduces future employment prospects; and increases the likelihood of future interaction with the criminal justice system.-POLICING IN SCHOOLS:
DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS |
New detention centers planned
PSA-Dewberry / August 17, 2009
An artist's rendering by PSA-Dewberry of Fairfax, Va., shows the design for the proposed juvenile detention center.
PSA-Dewberry / August 17, 2009
The proposed five-story, 200,000-square-foot Baltimore Youth Detention Center will accommodate youths charged criminally as adults and will enable the state to increase services for youth offenders.
Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron / August 17, 2009
A view looking west on East Monument Street shows the site of the adjoining juvenile and women's detention centers in East Baltimore.
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| The number of children arrested or referred to court for school discipline has grown in recent years. In South Carolina, the single most common offense resulting in a juvenile court referral during the 2007-08 year was 'Disturbing Schools.' - POLICING IN SCHOOLS: DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS |
Schoolhouse to Jailhouse
Make the Road New York's Youth Power Project
5 min., 21 sec.
We're not criminals. We're students.'
Youth at Make the Road New York, a Brooklyn community organization, discuss the School to Prison Pipeline and its impact on their lives. The film also tells the story of Luis, a young man suspended from school and questioned by officers from the local precinct for having a cell phone in his bag.
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Children of color and students with disabilities are disproportionately represented among these students. In Florida, Black youth, who represented only 22 percent of the overall juvenile population, accounted for 47 percent of all school-based delinquency referrals; youth with special needs accounted for 23 percent of all school-based referrals.- POLICING IN SCHOOLS:
DEVELOPING A GOVERNANCE DOCUMENT FOR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS IN K-12 SCHOOLS
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Locating the School-to-Prison Pipeline
The 'school-to-prison pipeline' refers to the
policies and practices that push our nation's
schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the
juvenile and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education. For a growing number of students, the path to incarceration includes the following 'stops':
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Local Activist and Radio Host Darren Muhammad calls for the removal of Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools
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Mapping and Analyzing The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Action Kit
This Action Kit is intended to help mobilized communities (parents, youth, advocates, and educators) understand and begin to address the schoolhouse to jailhouse track so that they may ultimately create caring learning environments that push students toward colleges and careers rather than prison. It includes information on:
- Collecting information and data about school discipline policies and practices;
- Analyzing and organizing the data; and
- Developing messages that resonate with your audience.
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Md. moving forward on detention center projects
Two planned $100 million facilities in E. Baltimore would hold youths, women
Downtown Baltimore's campus of ancient-looking prison buildings, several of which date to the 1800s, is slated for a major face-lift as the state moves forward with plans for two new detention centers that would cost more than $100 million each.
A state architectural board is scheduled to review today the design for a five-story, 180-bed detention center for teens facing adult criminal charges. Construction of the glassy, modern building along East Monument Street could begin next summer.
Meanwhile, design of an 800-bed detention center for women began about a month ago.
The buildings would keep adult male detainees separate from women and teens as required by federal law, addressing long-standing Justice Department complaints. Now, men, women and teens share hallway, classroom and booking space, creating conditions that Benjamin Brown, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services' pretrial division, calls untenable.
'It definitely is a difficult place to manage today,' Brown said.
The state agency has overseen Baltimore pretrial services, including the city jails, since the 1990s.
This week, the state settled a decades-old federal lawsuit over health and safety conditions at the Baltimore City Detention Center, parts of which are 150 years old, though prisoner rights advocates said plans for the new facilities were not a factor in that agreement.
The two projects are expected to cost the state more than $280 million. State lawmakers have approved money for design but not construction. They're expected to vote on the youth center construction during the next legislative session, which begins in January.
Although Maryland is strapped for cash amid a national economic downturn, lawmakers do not expect to postpone the projects, in part because the state's top bond rating enables it to borrow money cheaply.
Del. Keith E. Haynes, a Baltimore Democrat on the capital budget subcommittee, called the buildings 'a good investment' because they would create jobs in construction and lead to the hiring of more state employees.
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Arresting Development: Addressing the School Discipline Crisis in Florida
Many Florida districts, like many districts in other states, have turned away from traditional education-based disciplinary methods-such as counseling, after-school detention, or extra homework assignments-and are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor transgressions. Children are being criminalized, handcuffed, arrested, booked, and sent to court for minor misconduct in school. Known by many as the 'schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track' or the 'school-to-prison pipeline,' this growing trend of relying upon law enforcement and the courts for typical, minor adolescent misbehavior is alarming. It has dire consequences for children and their families and puts aside any notion of forgiving and teaching children.
Statewide there were 26,990 school-related referrals to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) during the 2004-05 school year. Over three-quarters of school-based referrals (76 percent) were for misdemeanor offenses such as disorderly conduct, trespassing, or assault and/or battery, which is usually nothing more than a schoolyard fight.
In addition to turning to police as disciplinarians, Florida schools increasingly utilize internal discipline methods that focus on isolation and removal of students instead of addressing the underlying causes of behavioral problems. In fact, the growth in the number of out-of-school suspensions has outpaced the growth of the student population by almost two-to-one. Out-of-school suspensions rose from 385,365 during the 1999-00 school year to 441,694 in 2004-05, a 14 percent increase, even though the student population increased by only 8.4 percent.
These punitive practices fall hardest on students of color, especially Black children. In the 2004-05 school year, Black students received 46 percent of out-of-school suspensions and police referrals, but comprised only 22.8 percent of the student population. Students with disabilities are also targeted by these practices.
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