Feds: Mississippi county runs 'school-to-prison pipeline'

[cybrsage]

Following up on my previous post (do not want to do too many edits to it), whether there is a violation of rights would depend on if the parents agree this is a good policy or not. If they do, then no rights are violated at all. If they do not, then it has to be looked into.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Following up on my previous post (do not want to do too many edits to it), whether there is a violation of rights would depend on if the parents agree this is a good policy or not. If they do, then no rights are violated at all. If they do not, then it has to be looked into.

Parents have a limited right to grant custody to another. Children also have limited rights compared to adults. Children can also be held in custody when there is a serious concern about their safety and well being. That is not the same as imprisonment ordered by an authority when none of the factors I cited apply. Government ordered incarceration even in this case requires that those in authority follow due process. That children may not enjoy rights to the degree that an adult would does not mean that detainment without demonstrated cause. Imprisoned in conditions described have never been argued as Constitutional, and macing? Hardly.

My only reservation is that this is limited to one source and subject to bias. Given that the story is essentially correct I cannot imagine any excuse for this.

 

[techs]

I just spent quite awhile googling the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Center.

The info is scattered amongst a lot of sites, but back in 2009 the Southern Poverty Law Center sued them. They alleged that, for example, kids were sent there because thier socks had a corporate logo and were not pure white. One child was paddled at school for an infraction and wouldn't stop crying so they were sent to jail for five days. The "prisoners" were kept in cells with no lights, with mold and feces on the walls. Given one hour outside their cells. No showers. No reading material, eduction, etc of any kind.

The facility agreed to correct these things and the case was settled.

They didn't fix one thing and now the Feds have become involved.

Parents who didn't want their kids in the facility had to get a lawyer and go to court. However, by the time that could happen the kids were home already. Those with the money and time could get their kids out. Those who were poor couldn't.

Mace was used for the tiniest infractions. Any protest or misbehaviour could almost indefinitely extend your stay. One girl was too sick to sit up straight and was sentenced to another month. Turns out she nearly died due to appendicitis.

The place was a horror story that managed to keep going because they were able to keep investigators and the public out using thier political connections.

 

[Abraxas]

If that's as bad as they say... then all we've left is to free those kids, and then burn the whole place down.

I disagree. Don't burn the place down but instead those who egregiously disregarded the Constitution should spend some time in that lovely facility.

I say we compromise, lock them up in the prison then burn it down.

But seriously, everyone complicit should be charged with a count of child endangerment/abuse for every problem with the prison multiplied by the number of man-days it has been occupied by children and make them serve every conviction back to back.

 

[Bitek]

While I'd prefer government to be vastly smaller than it is now, even I recognize that those functions which belong to the government, should in fact be run by the government and nor farmed out to the lowest bidder. If somethign is important enough to use the power of government to do it, then it should be done publicly with oversight and accountability.

+1

 

[Balt]

They lobby for harsher and more types of laws that they can throw your ass in jail for. Because it's profitable to have more inmates.

Yup. The privatization of prisons is a fine example of how public and private interests are sometimes far too disparate for the system to work. As taxpayers and members of a 'community', we should always be motivated to minimize the costs and duration of incarceration (when we can, for minor offenses). We should always be looking for viable and cost-effective alternatives, such as drug rehabilitation. This helps both us and those who have committed the crime.

Private prison corporations, however, will always have a motivation that is directly in opposition to this. The more people they can lock up, the better they will do, and they are not above lobbying and outright bribery to get it accomplished.