Danika`s resources:
Books:
Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control, by Amy E. Lerman and Vesla M. Weaver
Becoming Abolitionist, by Derecka Purnnel
Movies:
Podcast:
Drop Out Nation - Houston, Sharpstown High
https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-dropout-nation/
Other Useful Resources:
. Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (new name Texas Center for Justice and Equity)
Since 2000, TCJE has advocated ending mass incarceration by helping fund community support and reduce racial inequities in the criminal punishment system. They are an agency focused on collective leadership and centering the voices of those who have been personally affected by the criminal justice system. Their efforts range from advocacy on the grounds of the Texas capital to building coalitions across different
counties to conducting extensive research on how the criminal justice system can be transformed to save money and lives. Their research has produced critical wells of information for prison advocacy efforts, including restorative alternatives to policing and reentry infrastructures.
a. Reversing the Pipeline to Prison in Texas 2020 Report
The report published by TCJE has been extremely useful in our extraction of recent data. It also gathers different perspectives, from experts to youth activists, providing academic knowledge and personal stories from teens who were victims of punitive No-Tolerance policies.
2. The Marshall Project
This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is dedicated to providing awareness and transparency about the U.S. criminal justice system. The Marshall Project has used effective journalism to expose the realities inside prisons, namely juvenile detention centers. It has given a platform to formerly incarcerated authors and allowed them to share their firsthand experiences with the criminal system. The Marshall Project’s 2021-2022 report features Keri Blakinger, author of “Corrections in Ink,” detailing her life behind bars in New York State. This valuable insight that the Marshall Project provides helps peel back the veil of invisibility that our criminal justice system thrives on. 3. The Texas Tribune
This is a nonprofit news website centered around public policy and politics in the state. It brings timely articles that provide vast background on the recent expansion of the juvenile justice system, and puts it into local and historical context. It has references to great studies and articles focused on the state policies around troubled youth and
No-Tolerance schools, besides information on bills and budgets allocated to the detention centers. The articles we used were:
a. McCullough, Jolie. ‘Facing Youth Prison Crisis, Texas Lawmakers Opt to Build New Facilities and Funnel More Kids to Adult System’. The Texas Tribune, 2 June 2023. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/02/texas-youth-prison-crisis/.
i. Prison advocacy groups have long tried to help fix the unstable youth prison system in Texas. Given the option to close the state’s five remaining youth prisons, Texas instead spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build even more prisons for youths. This provision also makes it easier for juveniles to transfer to the more punitive adult Texas adult prison system.
4. A 'Dark Vision' of Discipline: Zero Tolerance Makes a Comeback Public education has steadily become a place of controversy in Texas. GOP Legislators, after being urged to do something about school safety following the harrowing events of Uvalde, have opted to toss out any at-risk students deemed disruptive to their classmates. These lawmakers claim that lack of respect for authority figures is the root cause of school violence, suggesting these students should instead be locked up before being offered behavioral and academic support. The bill would also allow kids to be labeled “habitually violent” for actions not clearly specified. This report offers a range of quantitative data that shed light on racial disproportions in school expulsions.
5. Keeping Kids in Class II: Analysis of Suspensions in Pre-k Through 2nd Grade in Texas Schools in 2017-18
This article, provided by Texans Care for Children, gives great insight into how children in the foster care system are more vulnerable to falling into the criminal justice system. A growing body of literature has shown that repeated school suspension to kids as young as four years old only undermines student learning and reinforces challenging behavior. This is deeply correlated to the issues mentioned in our research, specifically how students' class behavior reflects their emotional well-being and response to trauma. The report additionally provides quantitative data on the decreased amount of out-of-school suspensions.
6. School Discipline and Youth in Foster Care: How New Federal Guidance Can Help
Authored by the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, an agency of the American Bar Association, this newsletter establishes much of the grounding principles behind this research proposal. It offers significant criticism for harsh discipline practices against children, especially those in the foster care system and have experienced other types of trauma. The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education urges school districts to adopt a gentler, more positive approach to discipline. They additionally provide a framework to implement their methods for children in care.
7. The National Education Association
The NEA is the largest labor organization in the United States, representing educators across the country from different backgrounds. In the articles, the organization represent well the experiences of teachers and directors inside strict schools and share valuable insights from experts in the School-to-Prison pipeline. Moreover, they provide a more practical view of the challenges and fears educators
have when dealing with misbehavior and even violence - how feasible is it, to with the poor resources and incentives they have, to provide adequate restorative justice to their most difficult students?
Flannery, Mary Ellen. ‘The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Time to Shut It Down | NEA’. Accessed 13 June 2023.
https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/school-prison-pipeline time-shut-it-down.
Texas Tribune Articles
The War on Kids, movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1505145/
TED Talks: