1. YTFG Briefing Paper #2: Redirecting Youth from the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Instead of positioning youth for the college track, some misguided educational policies and practices are pushing youth into the school-to-prison pipeline, straight from school to juvenile detention. The school-to-prison pipeline is defined by at least two practices –1) the excessive use of exclusionary and “zero tolerance” policies instead of developmentally appropriate discipline measures that keep students focused on learning and 2) unspoken racial and ethnic biases that siphon young people of color into “prison apprenticeships” not experienced as often by white youth.

This cross-cutting issues paper from the Youth Transition Funders Group examines recent trends in pushing struggling students into the justice system and promising practices from programs that are keeping them on track.
http://www.ytfg.org/spotlight.html

 

 

Many who attended this forum in Stamford a few weeks ago have been working to try to change how 16 and 17 year-olds are treated by the law. Connecticut is one of just three states that require anyone this age who has been arrested to appear in adult criminal court and be incarcerated with adults. In 47 other states a 16 year-old is considered a juvenile. In 37 other states, so is a 17 year-old.

As this group learned, listening to Fernando Muniz of the Juvenile Justice Alliance or to parents who’ve watched with horror as their teens were caught up in the adult system, the campaign catch phrase is “Raise the Age.” Make 18 the point at which adult treatment clicks in in most cases - and we agree.

 

Why? First, because most cases involve minor crimes. We hear so much about shootings and murders, but these are rare. Most kids are in trouble for much more familiar stuff: disorderly conduct, too much drinking, drug abuse violations, maybe theft.

 

So they’re arrested and treated as adults. Does this “cure” them? Not usually and not only because some are mentally ill or from unstable backgrounds - and what a trauma an adult jail can be for them. No, it’s because the adult system offers no services for them, unlike the juvenile system. No therapy, no family counseling. Statistics – and common sense – tell you that such juvenile services help keep kids from re-offending.

 

Those services cost money, however. A chief reason legislators have been reluctant to call 16 and 17 year-olds juveniles. Not good enough. Anyone who has raised a 16 year-old knows he or she IS a juvenile. And needs the same help a 15 year-old would get.

 

 

 

Greater New Haven Legislative Breakfast

            Date: January 10, 2006

            Time: 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.

            Place:  Gateway Community College – Room 160

                         60 Sargent Drive, New Haven

 

Greater Hartford Legislative Breakfast

            Date: January 18, 2006

            Time: 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.

            Place: Legislative Office Building – Old Judiciary Room

                        300 Capital Ave, Hartford