Line of School-to-Prison Pipeline
The school-to-prison pipeline is a national trend where children are funneled from public schools into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The reason these children are funneled is due to their history of poverty, abuse, learning disabilities, and more. Instead of receiving extra help for their circumstances (which they have no control over), they are pushed out and excessively punished for mistakes made. This isolation causes the children to go from school to incarceration. Through my time in my Juvenile Delinquency class, I have learned so much more about the school-to-prison pipeline. I have met firsthand with students at the Miami Youth Academy and have heard their stories firsthand. Here are some words from Traffic on our discussion about juvenile delinquency.
Alice Goffman: How we're priming some kids for college — and others for prison
Below is a link to a Ted Talk presented by Alice Goffman. Goffman discusses the two journeys to adulthood: college and prison. She discusses how she noticed first-hand how teenagers of Latino or African American backgrounds were most likely to be funneled to the path to prison. She uses her position of privilege to challenge the oppression of the less-privileged members of her community. She helps us to realize that it is often times the environment in which you live and grow up that can determine your future. Click the link below to listen to Alice Goffman's speech.
Lines on the Inside
These are some excerpts from my letters with Traffic. In this letter, we discussed the line to becoming incarcerated. In the minds of outsiders (mainly due to television and movies), we think that it is a simple line to becoming incarcerated. Its portrayed as an arrest, trial, incarceration, then (possible) release. That is not the case. There are many administrative and bureaucratic roadblocks within the line to incarceration. Everyone's journey is incredibly different, and there is not a straight line followed. Traffic comments on this in his piece and discusses how "ironic" it is that although there are no straight lines into incarceration, as soon as you are on the inside, they use lines constantly. Read the excerpts to gain a deeper understanding of lines on the inside.
Incarceration Rates Among Founding Nato Countries in 2021
Below is a chart displaying the incarceration rates per 100,000 population in each country among the founding NATO countries. The US is ranked extremely high above the other countries with an incarceration rate of 664 people behind bars per every 100,000 US residents.
The Line to Decisions Made by Officers
Due to the media, we often view law enforcement as abusive, corrupt, and dysfunctional. Traffic is had an honorable career in law enforcement so who better to ask their opinion on the police? I asked Traffic some questions such as, "Do the police have a tainted occupation? What are some of the negative views about the police? why do they exist?" and "should departments clamp down on minor types of police deviance or focus on the more serious?" Traffic provided amazing insight and opinions on these questions I had posed. Below you can read both of our responses, as well as a news article about students in DC wanting to better the police and community relationships. Please read both the article and our letter exchange below.
DC students discuss bettering police, community relationship
Below is an article discussing police and community from the perspective of young adults. This article addresses how young adults feel about the police and how they can improve their relations with the public. Many feel there may be a lack of respect of care between the police and citizens and that is important to fix this. Please read the article below for more insightful information on police and the communities they serve.
Spark Project Sources
http://arthurlipper.com/getting-from-a-to-b/
https://stock.adobe.com/si/search?k=cartoon+police+station
https://www.ft.com/content/c4a00ea9-f61b-4c13-b885-85f9291e614f
https://www.akinsford.com/blog/what-is-the-fastest-police-car-in-america/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Dj9M71JAc
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html