Florida’s School-to-Prison Pipeline is Largest in the Nation. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com February 13, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Reprinted with permission of Colorlines.com. It used to be that getting in a schoolyard fight meant a trip to the principal’s office—detention, maybe.
The majority of the arrests, 67 percent, were for infractions like fist fights, dress-code violations, and talking back—schoolyard misbehavior that, in Florida and elsewhere, increasngly results in misdemeanor criminal charges. While Florida is not alone in turning to police to discipline young people, it has the distinction of being the nation’s leader in school-based arrests. In most cases, 69 percent, the juvenile justice system ultimately dismisses or otherwise diverts the charges. David Utter, director of the Florida Youth Initiative at the Southern Poverty Law Center, notes that getting arrested is, at a basic psychological level, a “highly traumatic” experience for young people. Making Prisoners Count. (Flickr/AJstream) With a prison population in the millions, the current method of counting inmates skews how representative democracy operates.
Add these two facts together: (1) To the United States Census Bureau, where prisoners have their “usual residence” is the prison in which they’re incarcerated and (2) The findings of the decennial census are used to draw political boundaries. The sum of those parts does strange things to the notion of how Americans elect people to represent us in state and local governments. “Our system for making political decisions in this country,” says Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative, “is being distorted by the miscounting of two million people.” In an era obsessed with political data—Microtargeting!
Swing-state polling! Data.gov! What’s the big deal? It gets even wonkier when you drill down into the concept of political power. Then there’s the impact back home. Advertisement U.S. census data are good enough for apportioning seats in the U.S. Supreme Court: Strip searches in jail OK even for minor offenses. By Pete Williams, NBC News chief justice correspondent WASHINGTON -- Siding with security needs over privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches. By a 5-4 vote, the court rejected a challenge from a New Jersey man who argued it's unconstitutional to force everyone to strip down for inspection. Albert Florence was arrested by a state trooper because of an error in the state's records that mistakenly said he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine.
Even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey. Florence was held for a week in two different jails before the charges were dropped. But at each jail, he was required to shower with delousing soap and undergo a strip search. Florence's lawyers argued such searches are unconstitutional unless police have reason to believe the subject is carrying a weapon or drugs. More content from msnbc.com and NBC News: Thousands of Florida ex-felons may not know they can vote. Hyde5: Why Dolphins aren't locked into drafting OL 1. How likely are the Dolphins to take an offensive linemen with their top pick?
A couple of months ago, that seemed certain with four of the five positions needing starters. But General Manager Dennis Hickey has signed players to provide possible... Toney Douglas makes most of chance before playoffs To a degree, Toney Douglas' primary task will be completed Wednesday night when the Miami Heat close out the regular season against the Philadelphia 76ers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Dead duck leads to man's arrest A 45-year-old man is accused of causing the cruel death of a duck. Hyde5: Why Dolphins aren't locked into drafting OL Tuesday's Bulletin Board Tuesday Anxiety, Depression and Anger Control Support Group, 10 a.m. at 2403 Hillsboro Blvd., Deerfield Beach. Easter sunrise services in Broward County Pines eaglets take to the air Easter sunrise services in Broward County. Bagram: Still A Black Hole For Foreign Prisoners.
By Andy Worthington Back in March 2009, three foreign prisoners seized in other countries and rendered to the main US prison in Afghanistan, at Bagram airbase, where they had been held for up to seven years, secured a legal victoryin the District Court in Washington D.C., when Judge John D. Bates ruled that they had habeas corpus rights; in other words, the right to challenge the basis of their imprisonment under the “Great Writ” that prevents arbitrary detention. The men — amongst dozens of foreigners held in Afghanistan — secured their legal victory because Judge Bates recognized that their circumstances were essentially the same as the prisoners at Guantánamo, who had been granted habeas corpus rights by the Supreme Court in June 2008. Unfortunately, the Obama administration appealed Judge Bates’ careful and logical ruling, and the judges of the D.C. Circuit Court agreed, overturning the ruling in May 2010, and returning the three men to their legal black hole.
Jackson, Mississippi schools barred from handcuffing students. Prison Industries: "Don't Let Society Improve or We Lose Business" (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)One out of every 100 people in the United States is imprisoned. Even though we are 5 percent of the world's population, we have 25 percent of the prisoners in the world. We are number one in the world in the number of people we imprison - we even beat China. A normal reaction to this situation would be to try to reform our laws, our judicial system - including sentencing - our prison system and our society so that we would not have the disconcerting distinction of being the number-one jailer in the world. Instead, in the past decade, there has been a movement to privatize more and more of our state and federal prisons to save money (which has not materialized) and ease overcrowding under the pressure of the courts.
There are two very large and influential prison companies in the United States who are manipulating the system to make sure they have plenty of business: The GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). President Obama’s IncarcerNation. During his State of the Union Address in January President Obama claimed that he “will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products.” What if “anywhere in the world” means inside U.S. prisons? With widespread spending cuts already scheduled for public assistance programs like Medicare and Medicaid and yet another deficit anticipated in FY 2013, President Obama has managed to request a 4.2% increase in allocations to the Federal Bureau of Prisons operating budget, one of the largest of any federal agency, which would bring its total operating resources to more than $6.9 billion. Oddly enough, the President’s budget is being submitted despite a national decrease in incarceration rates for the first time since 1972.
Moreover, the Obama administration has for the third consecutive year set a record in the number of undocumented immigrants detained and deported—nearly 400,000—from the U.S. during FY 2012. As current Director of the U.S. Jenny Phillips: Meditation In Prison: 100 Hours Of Silence. In the fall of 1999, I packed my tape recorder and traveled from my home outside Boston to visit Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison outside Birmingham, Alabama.
I was hoping to interview prisoners about their lives in prison and their experiences with meditation. I had heard that many of the prisoners at Donaldson were learning how to meditate and then teaching one another by reading a book written for prisoners titled Houses of Healing. Because I was also using this book in my volunteer work with prisoners in Massachusetts, I became interested in comparing my work with that of the prisoners at Donaldson. Donaldson is known as the "House of Pain," the end of the line in Alabama's prison system. On that first visit, the prison psychologist, Dr. After that first visit to Donaldson, I could not shake off the memories of what I had seen and heard. The Dhamma Brothers is a story of courage and hope. 40 Years in Solitary Confinement: US 'Pushing Boundaries of Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment' Today marks the dark anniversary of 40 years of solitary confinement of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace at Angola Prison in Louisiana.
Herman Wallace, left, and Albert Woodfox in Angola prison in Louisiana. Amnesty International will hand over a 65,000-signature petition to Louisiana Governor Jindal today demanding an end to Woodfox and Wallace's solitary confinement. The 40-year isolated incarceration of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace "pushes the boundaries of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and flies in the face of international standards to which the US is a party,” stated Everette Harvey Thompson, Southern Office Regional Director of Amnesty International USA.
Describing the cell he's lived in for 40 years, Herman Wallace says, "I can make about four steps forward before I touch the door. " The Guardian: Forty years in solitary: two men mark sombre anniversary in Louisiana prison Democracy Now! Arizona's Private Prisons: A Bad Bargain. State taxpayers have thrown away millions on shoddy facilities--and legislators think the solution is to bar them from oversight. An inmate rests his hand on a fence at an Arizona jail. REUTERS/Joshua Lott In mid-February, the Arizona chapter of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) released a report on the impact of private prisons in the state. Private Prisons: the Public’s Problem concluded that Arizona overpaid for private prison services between 2008 and 2010 to the tune of $10 million, and that the services it received were shoddy at best: malfunctioning alarm systems, fences with holes in them, staff who didn’t follow basic procedures and many other failings.
All told, the state’s auditor general documented 157 serious security failings across five facilities that hold in-state prisoners. (There are three additional private prisons.) At least twenty-eight riots were also reported. About the Author Sasha Abramsky Also by the Author. North Korea Prison Camps: 150,000 Languish In Secret Gulags, Human Rights Group Says.