Child Advocacy Program Art of Social Change: Child Welfare, Education, & Juvenile Justice - Child Advocacy ...
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Child Advocacy Program
Art of Social Change:
Child Welfare, Education, & Juvenile Justice
Professor Elizabeth Bartholet
Child Advocacy Program Faculty Director
Crisanne Hazen, Lecturer on Law
Child Advocacy Program Assistant Director
ASSIGNMENT PACKET for Session #9
April 4, 2019
Education & Juvenile Justice: Educating Incarcerated Youth
Lynette Tannis, Educational Consultant,
Adjunct Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Christy Sampson-Kelly, Director of Schools,
Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings
Session #9
April 4, 2019
Assignment
Speaker Biographies
Session Description
Readings: Pages
Lynette Tannis and Christy Sampson-Kelly
• Please watch: Incarcerated Youth: Latoya Fletcher
https://vimeo.com/44550053. (For the captioned version,
please click on the file in Canvas, located in the Reading
Packet 9 folder.)
• Mader, J., and Butrymowicz, S., Pipeline to Prison: 1-13
Special Education Too Often Leads to Jail for Thousands
of American Children, Early Education, Oct. 26, 2015
• Tannis, L., Educational Justice, National 14-15
Association for Public Defense, Jan. 7, 2016
• Tannis, L., The Intersection of Education and Incarceration, 16-20
Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 87, No. 1, Spring 2017
• Sawyer, W., Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie, Prison 21-27
Policy Initiative Press Release, Feb. 27, 2018
• Hager, E., with This American Life, The Hardest Lesson 28-37
on Tier 2C: Can a Violent Adult Jail Teach Kids to Love
School?, The Marshall Project, June 6, 2018
Session #9
April 4, 2019
Speaker Biographies
At a young age, Lynette Tannis recognized grave educational inequalities existed
depending on what a person looked like and where a person lived. Since 1995, she has
served in myriad educational roles including teacher, coach, literacy coordinator,
school/district administrator, professional developer, researcher, lecturer, education
consultant, and education delegate throughout the United States and within five
continents.
She is currently on faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she
teaches, Educating Incarcerated Youth: Practice, Research, and Policy. She also
conducts research for HGSE’s Partnership for Just Educators. Her current work as an
adjunct lecturer, researcher, and independent education consultant focuses on ensuring
all students – no matter what they look like or where they live; whether free or
incarcerated – receive the high-quality public education they deserve.
She is the author of Educating Incarcerated Youth: Exploring the Impact of
Relationships, Expectations, Resources and Accountability (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
and is recognized as an expert on juvenile justice education. Her work is featured in
the Harvard Educational Review (2017), the National Association for Public Defense
(2016), educationpost (2015), Education Week (2014), and the Harvard Ed. Magazine
(2015, 2014, 2013).
Lynette holds both a Doctor of Education degree (2013) and a Master’s of Education
Policy and Management degree (2010) from Harvard University, a Master’s degree With
Distinction in Educational Administration from Kean University (2003), and a Bachelor’s
degree Cum Laude in Elementary Education from Greensboro College (1995).
Christy Sampson-Kelly is a tireless advocate for a particularly vulnerable group of
young people, those with special needs confined in juvenile justice and adult facilities.
Currently serving as the Director of Schools for the Center for Educational Excellence in
Alternative Settings (CEEAS). Christy leads the Travis Hill School campuses, located
inside the New Orleans juvenile detention center adult jail, in implementing
transformational, person-centered practices, designed to contribute to the lived
experiences of young people held there. She also provides direct coaching to schools
inside locked facilities across the country in the areas of curriculum and instruction,
student engagement, positive behavioral support, and restorative practices–all with a
keen focus on helping schools improve how they teach and support students with
special needs. Before joining CEEAS, she worked for more than 10 years with at-
promise youth as a classroom teacher and then as a school-wide special education
coordinator. Christy earned her BS in elementary education from the University of Maryland, her MA in special education from San Diego State University, and her PhD in special education, also from the University of Maryland.
Session #9
April 4, 2019
Session Description
This class involves some of the many problematic educational issues for incarcerated
youth. While these youth are theoretically entitled to education, the reality is usually
very different, with many systems seriously deficient and focused almost entirely on
behavior management. Dr. Tannis first explored these issues when conducting
research for her doctoral dissertation, and was shocked to discover the absence of
attention to issues involving the education of incarcerated youth. She went on to do
work that has acted as a catalyst for reform in juvenile justice systems around the
country. Dr. Sampson-Kelly is an educational expert working on the ground in New
Orleans, Louisiana, using innovative approaches and ideas to improve the educational
experiences of incarcerated children—particularly those with disabilities. She will
discuss some of her successes as well as some of the obstacles to reform.
TOPICS ABOUT DONATE
Early Education
Pipeline to Prison: Special education too
often leads to jail for thousands of American
children
by JACKIE MADER and SARAH BUTRYMOWICZ October 26, 2014
G RENADA, Miss.— Cody Beck was 12 years old when he was
handcuffed in front of several classmates and put in the back
of a police car outside of Grenada Middle School. Cody had lost his
temper in an argument with another student, and hit several
teachers when they tried to intervene. He was taken to the local
youth court, and then sent to a mental health facility two hours away
from his home. Twelve days later, the sixth-grader was released from
the facility and charged with three counts of assault.
Officials at his school determined the incident was a result of Cody’s
disability. As a child, Cody was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He
had been given an Individual Education Program, or IEP, a legal
document that details the resources, accommodations, and classes
that a special education student should receive to help manage his or
her disability. But despite there being a medical reason for his
behavior, Cody was not allowed to return to school. He was called to
youth court three times in the four months after the incident
happened, and was out of school for nearly half that time as he
waited to start at a special private school.
1
Cody is one of thousands of children caught up in the juvenile justice
system each year. At least one in three of those arrested has a
disability, ranging from emotional disability like bipolar disorder to
learning disabilities like dyslexia, and some researchers estimate the
figure may be as high as 70 percent. Across the country, students
with emotional disabilities are three times more likely to be arrested
before leaving high school than the general population.
When the special
education system fails
youth and they end up This story also appeared in The
Clarion Ledger
in jail, many stay there
for years or decades.
The vast majority of adults in American
prisons have a disability, according to a
1997 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey.
Cody Beck reads a book that was assigned by his Data hasn’t been updated since, but
teacher at Grenada Middle School. Since April, Cody experts attribute the high percentage of
has been on a “homebound” program due to behavior,
where he does his work at home and meets with a individuals with disabilities in the
teacher for four hours each week for instruction.
(Photo by Jackie Mader)
nation’s bloated prison population –
which has grown 700 percent since
1970 – in part to deep problems in the
education of children with special needs.
In Mississippi and across the country, the path to prison often starts
very early for kids who struggle to manage behavioral or emotional
disabilities in low-performing schools that lack mental health care,
highly qualified special education teachers, and appropriately
trained staff. Federal law requires schools to provide an education for
kids with disabilities in an environment as close to a regular
classroom as possible. But often, special needs students receive an
inferior education, fall behind, and end up with few options for
college or career. For youth with disabilities who end up in jail,
education can be minimal, and at times, non-existent, even though
federal law requires that they receive an education until age 21.
ADVERTISEMENT
2
“A lot of times, it’s a major setback,” said Elissa Johnson, a staff
attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. She added that some
transgressions are serious, and it’s behavior that needs to be
addressed, “But when you’re dealing with students with disabilities,
youth court referrals are harmful.”
Experts say that students with emotional
disabilities can be impulsive, inattentive, or
Nationwide, at least aggressive, behavior that gets them in trouble.
73 percent of youth “When we’re talking about emotional or behavioral
with emotional disabilities, we’re really talking about kids with
disabilities who serious mental health needs,” said Reece Peterson,
a professor of special education at the University
drop out of school
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
are arrested within
3
five years, Learning disabilities can also land special needs
according to a children in trouble more often than their peers.
federal study. “Kids with learning disabilities that are not
properly remediated in a school setting start to
dislike school, or act up at school, or do things to
distract from the fact that they’re not doing well,” said Diane Smith
Howard, senior staff attorney for the National Disability Rights
Network.
More than 14,600 youth were involved with Mississippi’s juvenile
justice system in 2012, but it’s unknown how many were in special
education since the state does not track that information. (According
to a Mississippi Department of Education (DOE) official, both the
DOE and the Public Safety Office believed the other department was
responsible. The official said that the DOE will begin to collect that
data this year.)
Although numbers fluctuate as students move in and out of the
system, some federal data show that kids with disabilities are
overrepresented in the state’s detention facilities. In 2011, 13 percent
of students in the state’s public school system qualified for special
education. But at the Oakley Youth Development Center, about 27
percent of students had disabilities, according to a federal Office of
Civil Rights survey. Officials at the Rankin County Detention Center
say that 50 percent of the children they’ve had this year qualify for
special education.
Related: Mississippi finally funds statewide pre-K — but only for
six percent of its youngest learners
Many of these kids enter the justice system shortchanged by schools
and far behind their non-disabled peers. In the 2012-13 school year,
only 13 percent of eighth-grade students with disabilities scored
proficient or above on the state’s language arts exam, compared to 58
percent of non-disabled students. According to a previous Clarion-
Ledger review of data, during the 2011-2012 school year, less than a
quarter of special education students in Mississippi received a
regular diploma, far lower than the national average of 64 percent in
2011.
4“Young people who generally end up in trouble
were not prepared from the beginning
educationally,” said Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald,
“I’m trying to be director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Southern
proactive. Regional Office. A 2013 report by the Minneapolis-
Everything we talk based PACER Center, a parent training center,
to them about is warned that one of the biggest reasons students
about not end up in the corrections system is “school
becoming a victim failure.”
to the system.”
Many kids across Mississippi also lack access to
Alfonso Franklin,
pre-kindergarten, meaning they may start behind
program manager academically, socially, and emotionally, and can
at the Mississippi miss a critical time period to identify disabilities
Center for Justice. and begin treatment. Only about 17 percent of
children under 5 in Mississippi receive a screening
for developmental or behavioral problems,
compared to the national average of about 31 percent.
“Early education and nurturing is absolutely critical,” said
Fitzgerald. “Children whose needs are met at an early age are able to
go to school ready to learn…They’re much less likely to be discipline
problems in the classroom.”
First step — suspension
To an outsider, Cody seems like any other 14-year-old boy. He’s soft-
spoken around strangers and spends his free time playing with his
baby sister, hunting with his dad, and building things outside in the
family’s wood shop in their modest rural home near Grenada Lake.
He aspires to be an underwater welder, like his father. But from a
young age, Cody has struggled to manage his anger. He has outbursts
when he argues with others, especially with other children. If he is
touched while angry, he tries to get away, even if that means hitting
someone else. His parents say he especially tends to clash with
“bullies,” which can spiral into heated fights.
In his 2013-14 IEP, it was recommended that Cody receive individual
instruction, be placed in a small class with other students with
5emotional disabilities, and daily therapy sessions. His teachers set
short-term goals for Cody, such as “develop the ability to identify
impulsive thoughts and consequences” and “develop the ability to
identify and express feelings of anger and distress in socially
acceptable ways.” In his IEP, his teachers also detailed his academic
abilities: he was reading nearly at grade level, but his math and
writing skills were several grades behind. They wrote that Cody “tries
to do his best work and desires to learn.”
Robert Beck, Cody’s father, said he also
explained to Cody’s teachers what he
found to work best in calming Cody
down, like speaking in a calm voice and
refraining from making physical
contact.
Still, from a young age, Cody was
suspended for behavioral incidents and
Alfonso Franklin, a project manager for the Mississippi
Center For Justice, talks to a young man in his Youth in missed more than a dozen days of
Transition program. Franklin’s program aims to keep school in the months leading up to his
youth out of jail by keeping them in school and
providing jobs and mentors. (Photo by Jackie Mader) arrest. When asked about the fighting,
Cody said he loses his temper when
other kids tease him, or when he hears
“people talking about my parents, telling me I’m stupid.”
For many students with disabilities, suspensions are often the entry
point in the pipeline to the criminal justice system. Statewide, more
than 8,000 students with disabilities received an out of school
suspension, and nearly half of those received more than one in the
2011-12 school year, according to estimates by the federal Office of
Civil Rights.
6“Many of those kids get in further trouble out of school,” said Reece
Peterson, “and they end up in the juvenile justice system.”
Related: For special education students, diplomas, jobs
increasingly elusive
Several special education students who have been arrested said in
interviews that their trouble with the law was preceded by frequent
suspensions for fighting or “talking back.” One 16-year-old special
education student at Oakley Youth Development Center, a long-term
center for incarcerated youth, said in the past, “loud noises and
childish people” would set him off. A 15-year-old student at Oakley
who qualifies for special education said that she was incarcerated
after assaulting a police officer. She had already been suspended
7from school numerous times for things like “playing in the hall”
during class or talking back to teachers.
What would have happened to Cody Beck in a different state?Like Cody Beck, thousands of
special education students in Mississippi lose valuable time in school through suspensions,
expulsions and arrests each year. According to federal data, more than 8,000 special education
students in Mississippi received an out-of-school suspension in the 2011-2012 school year– about
14 percent of all special education students in the state. Experts say a suspension can lead to
bigger trouble for students later on, including time in jail. By comparison, just 5 percent of Utah’s
students with special needs were given an out-of-school suspension, one of the lowest rates in the
country.Keeping all students in school is a priority, said Utah Department of Education director of
special education Glenna Gallo. Although she couldn’t speak directly to a student in Cody’s
situation, she said that Utah educators are taught to prevent disruptive behavior from leading to
arrest. “We have quite of a few of our staff trained in crisis de-escalation,” she said, adding that
teachers and administrators are given strategies for calming down students with behavioral
disabilities without touching them.
The Utah Department of Education has provided administrators with workshops in crisis
intervention strategies, which includes referring special education students to mental health
services instead of suspending them. Sending a student to a private treatment program, as in
Cody’s case in Mississippi, would only be a last resort. “Utah generally keeps their students within
the school community,” Gallo said.
— Sarah Butrymowicz
School discipline policies often do not take into account students
with disabilities. They may, for example, include zero tolerance
policies not only for serious behavior, but also for disrespect or
noncompliance. Experts say this can lead schools to
disproportionately suspend special education students, whose
actions may be manifestations of their disability.
A 2013 report by several nonprofits found that some Mississippi
school discipline policies include vague or subjective language, like
expulsion for “any action which is deemed disorderly conduct or
misconduct.” In Caledonia, Mississippi, several parents interviewed
said that deputies who work in the nearby Lowndes County School
District respond in extreme ways, such as pulling out a Taser gun
when kids, including those with behavioral or emotional disabilities,
act out in school. (Officials from the district said that no Taser guns
8have been used on children at school, but police officers on the
campuses do carry them. The district’s security guards do not.)
Not enough teachers, not enough counseling
One of the main reasons special needs children are jailed more often
than their peers is because teachers aren’t trained in how to manage
kids who are insubordinate or disruptive, according to the 2013
report by the PACER Center. For years, Mississippi has experienced a
shortage of highly qualified special education teachers, especially in
the lowest-performing schools. (Nearly one-third of Mississippi’s
districts are considered “critical needs” districts by the state.)
Reece Peterson says discipline needs to move to a more “teaching-
based” approach so that students explicitly learn correct behavior. “If
[a student] has a disability that has characteristics of being
aggressive and acting out, we can’t simply punish him for that,”
Peterson said. “We would want to provide some sort of service or
intervention for it.”
But these resources are lacking in Mississippi. During the 2011-12
school year, only about half the children ages 2 to 17 who have
problems that require counseling received mental health care,
compared to more than 60 percent nationwide. Paul Bowen,
administrator of the Rankin County Youth Court, said he sees many
youth who have untreated mental health problems. The detention
facility provides counseling while the youth are incarcerated, but few
continue once they get home. “Many of these children would
respond positively,” Bowen said. “But they’re dependent on adults to
get them there and many families can’t afford those services.”
Related: Back to school, but without books and basics in
Mississippi
There have been some efforts to find solutions. In 2013,
administrators at the Rankin County Detention Center rolled out a
new behavior management program called Positive Behavioral
Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, which aims to teach and reward
positive behaviors, rather than focusing on punishment and negative
behaviors. Paul Bowen said that since the program launched, the
9detention center has seen a 65 percent decrease in incidents related
to behavior. Some states, like Minnesota, have rolled out this
program in all schools.
In the absence of school-based efforts and resources, a handful of
nonprofits have launched programs to keep the most at-risk students
out of the justice system. In the Delta town of Ruleville, Alfonso
Franklin, a project manager at the Mississippi Center for Justice,
runs a program aimed at helping boys transition out of the system, or
keeping them out from the start. He frequently tracks down students
who are absent from school, checks in with their teachers, and
organizes speakers to talk about the impact of getting arrested. “I’m
trying to be proactive,” Franklin said, adding that there are few
recreational activities or resources in rural Mississippi. “Everything
we talk to them about is about not becoming a victim to the system.”
Related: Can the hundreds of education experts who flocked to
Mississippi improve life for the state’s black boys?
Efforts like these are critical, experts say, since preventing an arrest
in the first place is much easier than helping kids stay out of jail once
they’ve spent time there. Dennis Daniels, superintendent of the
Oakley Youth Development Center, said that Oakley sees so many
students with disabilities because communities and schools tend to
“deal with the behavior before they deal with the disorder.”
“There’s nobody dealing with their disabilities,” Daniels said. “If you
don’t get them help in the community, they get locked up.”
No way back
After an arrest, families say they often encounter districts that are
reluctant to let those children return to school, or schools that are ill-
equipped to handle them. “The school district might say ‘I’m
uncomfortable with you returning to school, we’re going to put you
in an alternative program,” said Smith Howard.
After his arrest, Cody’s team of special education teachers and school
officials decided to send him to the Millcreek Day Treatment center,
a privately run facility in the northwest Mississippi town of
10Batesville, which is accredited by the state of
Mississippi as a “special non-public school.” There,
Cody’s parents say he was mixed with “a lot of
After an arrest, problem kids and the school work wasn’t
many students lose challenging.” Cody said he was frequently given
valuable learning worksheets and word searches. One of his
time and fall even assignments as a seventh-grade student was to
further behind, read and complete a 68-page packet called “How I
while others Learned to Control My Temper,” which is written
become a frequent at a low-elementary level and tells the story of a
fixture in youth boy who learns different ways to handle his
courts and a temper. It includes several pages of activities, like
patchwork system drawing pictures, and playing tic-tac-toe.
of detention Megan Williams, a therapist at Millcreek that the
centers, youth jails, school provided for comment, said that although
and alternative she can’t speak about any former or current
schools for students, she guesses the packet was “not from the
education. A 2006 teacher, but from the therapist.” (At Millcreek,
study found that Cody had daily access to a special education
for all students, a teacher and a therapist.) Regarding the classwork,
first-time arrest Williams said that “each classroom is different,”
during high school and she was not able to speak about the academic
program at the facility.
nearly doubles the
odds of that In dozens of daily reports sent home by Millcreek,
student dropping Cody’s behavior seemed to improve, although
out, while a court there were still a few behavioral incidents that
appearance nearly resulted in time out of school. For several stretches
quadruples the of time, he received perfect or near perfect scores
odds of dropout. for “respecting others,” “following directions,” and
his individual goal to “stay positive.” On several
reports, teachers commented that Cody “did all
class work” and “ignored negativity.”
After an incident last October, however, Millcreek referred Cody to a
behavioral treatment center in Tennessee. When he was released, his
father and stepmother asked the school district to move Cody to back
11to the public school, where they wanted him to receive more
challenging work. Instead, school officials offered to put him on a
“homebound program” where he would complete work sent home
every day, and spend two hours twice a week working with a teacher
at a regular school. In the future, they said, he could possibly
transition back to the regular school.
Officials at Grenada Middle School said they
couldn’t discuss individual students. Bea Colbert,
“When we’re director of special education for the Grenada
talking about School District, said that the decision to put a child
emotional or on a homebound program “depends on the
behavioral individual circumstances.” The amount of time a
child spends homebound also varies by child,
disabilities, we’re
Colbert said, but could be based on how well the
really talking
child has been working with the academic teacher,
about kids with
“how much time [in school] they’re able to
serious mental
tolerate,” or how well the child is doing in
health needs,” counseling sessions. “Our ultimate goal for every
Reece Peterson, a child is to be in their least restrictive environment
professor of and to earn a traditional diploma,” Colbert said.
special education “But for some children, that may not be a realistic
at the University goal.”
of Nebraska-
Cody’s parents said they were torn, since they
Lincoln
knew he may not be ready to handle a large class,
but they didn’t want him to be isolated. In April
this year, they agreed to keep him at home, but they said his
education now consists of him spending most of his days alone,
teaching himself the material that is sent home from school. When
teachers at Grenada Middle School wanted to move him on to eighth
grade this year, his parents argued that he has missed too much
school, and has not learned enough, to move on. This year, Cody is
repeating seventh grade.
“What they’re doing now is not providing him with an education,”
said Bobbi Jo Beck, Cody’s stepmother. She said she fears that if he
doesn’t learn how to interact with others and control his temper,
12future incidents could lead to more arrests and jail time, which is
something she sees frequently at her job as a nurse at a county jail.
“It scares me,” Bobbi Jo said. “I don’t want that to happen to him.”
This story was produced in partnership with the Juvenile Justice
Information Exchange, the only national news outlet reporting the
juvenile justice issue daily. Read more about efforts to improve
education in Mississippi.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased
reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't
mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the
public informed about pressing issues at schools and on
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In this story Early Education, Mississippi, K-12, News
Jackie Mader
Jackie Mader is multimedia editor. She has covered preK-12
education and teacher preparation nationwide, with a focus on
the rural south. Her work has appeared… See Archive →
@jackiemader
Sarah Butrymowicz
Sarah Butrymowicz is senior editor for investigations. For her
rst four years at The Hechinger Report, she was a sta writer,
covering k-12 education, traveling… See Archive →
@sarahbutro
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Educational Justice
By: lynette.tannis On: 01/07/2016 13:51:47 In: Chronological
In 2013, our nation's juvenile courts handled approximately 1.1 million juvenile delinquency cases. This number of children represents more than
the total population within states like Alaska, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wyoming. Would we simply
discard a state or our nation's capital? Or, as we pledge allegiance, are we truly “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all?”
We espouse that we try to do all that we can to help make our territories and communities better. But there seems to be a shift when we are
dealing with human beings who have been accused of committing crimes. And, even more speci cally, when it's our most vulnerable population –
our incarcerated youth.
In 2013, our nation's juvenile courts handled approximately 1.1 million juvenile delinquency cases. This number of children represents
more than the total population within states like Alaska, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wyoming.
Would we simply discard a state or our nation's capital? Or, as we pledge allegiance, are we truly “one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all?” We espouse that we try to do all that we can to help make our territories and communities better. But
there seems to be a shift when we are dealing with human beings who have been accused of committing crimes. And, even more
speci cally, when it's our most vulnerable population – our incarcerated youth.
While the numbers of incarcerated youth have been decreasing over the years, largely because of the advocacy work to provide other
alternatives for children exhibiting delinquent behaviors, we still incarcerate more than 100,000 juveniles each year. This equates to
approximately 60,000 youth being housed in our nation's approximate 2,600 juvenile residential facilities, of which 49% are privately owned and
operated; and more than 1,000 youth ages 17 and younger, are housed in our adult prisons.
We can't continue to be part of the problem or perhaps worst, to pretend that there is no problem. It's only when we read an article like
the NAACP requests federal investigation into juvenile justice education that we begin to wonder or question, “What exactly is happening to
our children who we don't see each day?” The Maryland State Department of Education provides a brief description on their website of
the educational services they provide their incarcerated students. Most, if not all states and juvenile facilities espouse quality
educational programs for their incarcerated youth; however, there often is tremendous incongruity with what is being touted and what
is being actualized. Maryland is not the only state under review. Lawsuits continue to ensue throughout the United States. Moreover, in
a study conducted by Read and O'Cummings (2011), they found that only 65% of our nation's facilities were offering an educational
program for all its incarcerated youth. Furthermore, they cited that only 46% of special needs children who had IEPs prior to being
adjudicated reported actually receiving the services outlined in their IEPs while incarcerated. In the recently released brief provided
by the Council of State Governments, Locked Out: Improving Educational and Vocational Outcomes for Incarcerated Youth, we also learn that
“only 8 states (16 percent) report providing incarcerated youth with access to the same educational and vocational services that are
available to youth in the community.” It seems like it continues – that the children who need the most, receive the least. While it's
important to provide the appropriate support structures within our communities so that they avoid downward trajectories; those who
are experts in the elds of government, law and education, must work hand in hand to ensure that we are creating viable solutions for
the grave inequities and atrocities that exist for our nation's incarcerated youth.
Both President Obama in the Every Student Succeeds Act and Secretary of Education Duncan, in the December 8, 2014 USDOJ and USDOE
joint proclamation cite the need for every student, including incarcerated children, to be exposed to a world-class education. However,
there are incarcerated children within our country who are sometimes being denied even the most basic education. There are students
who may need a foreign language or a higher level mathematics course to graduate; yet because that particular course is not offered at
the facility, they must sit idly as time passes and wait until they return to their home school to complete the credit bearing course.
Much like anything in life, we must rst envision and then espouse our belief before it is fully actualized or achieved. This is no different
with education. The 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Achievement) data demonstrates how far we as a nation are
14lacking with education pro ciency. A comparison of the 34 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
countries, demonstrates how we fare with other developed and developing countries. The United States ranked 17 in Reading, 20 in
Science, and 27 in Mathematics. Perhaps this is additional evidence that we have a long way to go to achieve world-class status. And,
that's for our kids “on the outs” – those who have managed to live and function “outside” of our juvenile justice system. We need to
ensure every child is being exposed to a world-class education; and this must include every child, free or incarcerated.
It is becoming more and more evident to me that our children who need the most, by design, receive the least. Teachers in these
settings, though well intentioned, are oftentimes the least prepared to work with children who have signi cant challenges – children
dealing with complex trauma, many of whom are raising themselves and have experienced continual academic failure. Public defenders
who are also well intentioned, are inundated with so many caseloads that make it extremely dif cult to provide the time and attention to
each case, for each child they represent. The immeasurable odds are stacked against our most vulnerable children and seemingly all
those who are impassioned, led or assigned to help positively impact their life trajectories. Since 2010, I've visited dozens of juvenile
justice schools throughout the United States and abroad. Many of the juvenile justice staff members are working double shifts and are
exhausted; public defenders continue to be overloaded with cases, and the teachers continue to hope that their educational programs
will be recognized as a priority within their facilities.
Imagine for a moment, if all facilities were held to high standards, speci cally for their education, treatment, and therapy. Imagine if
participants (those incarcerated, staff, educators, public defenders, private attorneys, parents - all stakeholders) were able to score or
provide feedback on the quality of the facility and the school's educational programming. Additionally, imagine if there were criteria by
the few experts we have in this juvenile justice education eld and each one of our approximate 2,600 facilities were assessed and
scored and ranked; and, at the push of a button, much like a hotel review on tripadvisor or a restaurant review on yelp, public defenders
would have access to the data immediately that can be used to agree with the decision a judge has made or to plead the case for their
client that the crime they are being convicted of would further exacerbate their situation if sent to a facility that does not offer the one
remaining course a child needs to graduate, for example. It's important for us to keep in mind that the majority of cases for which our
youth get incarcerated are for non-violent crimes.
About two months ago, I was on a call with someone who was adamant that the incarcerated youth in her state's detention centers had
100% attendance. I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news; but I informed her that although I hadn't yet been to every facility across
our nation, at every site that I have visited, both nationally and internationally for the past ve years, I have yet to nd a place where
every child is present in all of their classes every day. I have been in facilities where children have gone two weeks without being
exposed to any educational program – as part of their punishment for displaying inappropriate behaviors within the facility. Does this
matter? Well, if you were paying an average of $408 per day, at the lowest end in Louisiana - $127.84 per day or at the highest end in New York
at $966.20 per day per incarcerated youth, for the highest con ned juvenile justice setting, you'd want to make sure you were getting your
monies worth – right? Well, it's time we stop being ignorant. It's time we think about the children we don't see. It's time we recognize
that what we do or don't do with these children impacts our nation's future. The funding is being allocated. We must ensure that we
are both supporting and holding all stakeholders accountable to provide the optimal setting for our children.
These children are our most vulnerable population. We have to make the work that our teachers, juvenile justice staff, and public
defenders do, translate into a more ef cient and user-friendlier manner for this population that for so long, our society has ignored.
While we send them away for punishment, we must not also penalize those who feel led to rehabilitate and support their success,
despite the ongoing failures these youth continue to experience.
It's time America. We don't need another study to show the continued wrong and injustice we are doing in the name of justice. We
must begin to fortify our communities and provide the supports that are needed so the youth see there are other options than
committing crimes. In addition to the data about the youth's case, public defenders should be knowledgeable about the educational,
health, and behavioral needs of their clients to help provide compelling evidence that a program is/is not a good t for their client.
During the years of 1998-2010, the state of Florida had a quality assurance program in place for their juvenile facilities, which included
an education component. Through the Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program, each juvenile residential facility was rated and
ranked based upon its scores. Some facilities closed because they were consistently rated below satisfactory.
We must come up with the right formula to determine the speci c components needed for all juvenile justice education programs to be
deemed exemplary and begin to evaluate, support and/or sanction facilities until all facilities are excellent for children or until we
provide the necessary community and social supports and we no longer have any incarcerated children – which would be a victory for
our entire society!
Despite the odds stacked against our most vulnerable population and those who provide them service, I remain hopeful. My desire to
ensure we right this wrong is further resolved. It's time to make a difference America – and what a blessing for our children and our
nation if we live and function as though every life matters.
You can read more at this link.
15symposium
The Intersection of Education and
Incarceration
Foreword: A Crime for a Crime? The Landscape of
Correctional Education in the United States
LY NETTE N. TANNIS
Harvard Graduate School of Education
During his 1894 “Blessings of Liberty and Education” address, Frederick Doug
lass asserted:
If a man is without education . . . he is a poor prisoner without hope . . . Edu-
cation, on the other hand, means emancipation . . . To deny education to any
people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature. It is to deny them the
means of freedom and the rightful pursuit of happiness, and to defeat the very
end of their being.
Perhaps this view of education as freedom is why some people believe that
those who are serving time in carceral settings should not be exposed to edu-
cational programs. According to Werner (cited in Messemer, 2011), educating
prisoners offers individual empowerment—a perceived contradiction to notions
of safety and security and the need to make inmates feel disempowered (Eisen-
berg, 2016). Why would we attempt to free someone we’ve just confined? First,
we must recognize that the majority of crimes for which adults are convicted
and children are adjudicated are nonviolent offenses (Petteruti, Schindler,
& Ziedenberg, 2014). Furthermore, with the exception of the 2,500 children
(Rovner, 2016) and 160,000 adults (Nellis, 2013) in the United States who are
currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, the majority of
inmates will one day return to our communities (Tannis, 2014). If we harbor
anger for the crimes they’ve committed and do nothing but “warehouse” them,
a term frequently used, what do we expect from them and for our society?
When one is convicted of a crime, should we in turn retaliate by committing
one of the greatest crimes, as noted by Douglass—deny them an education?
Harvard Educational Review Vol. 87 No. 1 Spring 2017
Copyright © by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
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16Symposium: The Intersection of Education and Incarceration
lynette n. tannis
Perhaps our commitment to punishment over rehabilitation is why only
65 percent of juvenile facilities nationwide offer an educational program for
all incarcerated youth (Read & O’Cummings, 2011). Yet, according to Black
(2005), “Youthful offenders who lose their freedom shouldn’t lose their
chance for a good education” (p. 50). This is the belief we should have for
all offenders. Although education is not a federal constitutional right, “nearly
every state constitution within the United States recognizes the right to an
education” (Weissman et al., 2008, p. 1); and some state statutes include a
clause indicating that incarcerated children should receive an education com-
parable to their nonincarcerated peers. However, a 2015 study conducted by
the Council of State Governments Justice Center found that only eight states
provide incarcerated youth with access to similar educational and vocational
programs afforded to their nonincarcerated peers. If we view people in car-
ceral settings as those in need of punishment without rehabilitation, we will
never provide the freedom on the inside that is so desperately needed for
them to be productive and free when they transition to the “outs.” A recent
RAND report indicates that adult inmates who participate in an educational
program while incarcerated are 43 percent less likely to recidivate (Davis,
Bozick, Steele, Saunders, & Miles, 2013)—evidence that even in carceral set-
tings education is the key. We must accentuate the positive results and ensure
that we hold carceral facilities accountable for providing quality educational
programs. This Harvard Educational Review symposium provides an in-depth
look at the juncture of education and incarceration.
The denial and/or lack of educational programs within carceral settings are
concerning given the size of the US prison system. In 2014, approximately 1.6
million adults and 70,000 youth were incarcerated on any given day (includ-
ing 10,000 youth housed in adult prisons) (Carson, 2015; Lahey, 2016). These
numbers represent a mere fraction of the nearly 7 million people who were
involved with the adult correctional system by confinement and other forms of
supervision, including parole, probation, and electronic monitoring (Kaeble,
Glaze, Tsoutis, & Minton, 2016). And in 2013, juvenile justice courts through-
out the United States handled more than 1 million juvenile cases (Hocken-
berry & Puzzanchera, 2015).
While many proudly sing our national anthem as a reminder that America is
the land of the free, some may be confounded to learn that here in the United
States, we have more federal, state, and local jails and prisons than we have
two- and four-year degree-granting colleges and universities. For example, in
2013, there were 4,726 degree-granting institutions (National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, 2016), compared to 5,104 federal and state prisons and local
jails (Wagner & Rabuy, 2015). These numbers do not account for the more
than 2,500 juvenile facilities nationwide, 49 percent of which are owned by
non- and for-profit organizations (Hockenberry, Sickmund, & Sladky, 2015).
Furthermore, at least eleven states spend more money on prisons than they
spend on higher education (Lobosco, 2015).
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17Harvard Educational Review
The Netflix documentary 13th (Avernick & DuVernay, 2016) demonstrates
how our nation’s Thirteenth Amendment links to the historical and current
perspective of the inequities of race within our nation’s prison system. Alex-
ander’s powerful research in The New Jim Crow (2012) and Stevenson’s Just
Mercy (2014) also postulate why there are disproportionate numbers of people
of color imprisoned. These sources reflect the overall disregard we have for
those we view as criminals and highlight what few rights exist for those con-
victed of crimes, including those who are innocent. Although slavery was abol-
ished in 1865, the overrepresentation of people of color chained and behind
bars today is eerily parallel to the many people of color chained and confined
during the days of legalized slavery.
Ninety years prior to the abolishment of slavery, the second paragraph of our
nation’s Declaration of Independence read, “We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal.” Although a proclamation was made
that we are all created equal, we have yet to actualize a shared belief that all
humans are treated equitably. Grave inequalities still exist. Our nation’s incar-
cerated populations are disproportionately people of color, survivors of sexual
abuse, and people with special needs and mental illnesses, poor educational
experiences, victims of sexual abuse, and low socioeconomic status (NAACP,
2011; Schwirtz, Winerip, & Gebeloff, 2016). And they are people who iden-
tify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) or nonconforming; two to
three times more incarcerated adults and juveniles indicate they are LGBT or
nonconforming, compared with the general population (Center for American
Progress & Movement Advancement Project, 2016). The percentage of special
needs students who are incarcerated is three times greater than the percentage
of the nation’s public schools’ special education population (Quinn, Ruther-
ford, Leone, Osher, & Poirier, 2005). Moreover, it is estimated that more than
50 percent of adult inmates have a mental illness (Sarteschi, 2013).
Sometimes viewed as a means of separating or isolating mentally ill, LGBT,
or other inmates “for their own good” or for disciplinary reasons, inmates are
placed in solitary confinement—on lockdown for 23 hours a day, sometimes
for months or years at a time. In the late 1700s, solitary confinement was intro-
duced by the Quakers as a way for prisoners to reflect on their crimes and
show their remorse. After years of experimenting, prison board members and
state government officials realized that prisoners being placed in confined
settings resulted in both illness and insanity and in 1824 recommended the
repeal of laws for solitary confinement (Barnes, 1921). Despite the negative
impact, youth and adult facilities nationwide have continued this practice of
solitary confinement. In 2016 President Barack Obama banned the use of soli-
tary confinement for juveniles housed in federal prisons and decreased the
maximum number of days for adults in solitary confinement for a first offense
from 365 to 60 (Eilperin, 2016).
Placing children in solitary confinement further decreases the likelihood
that they are receiving educational programming. In 2015, while working on
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18Symposium: The Intersection of Education and Incarceration
lynette n. tannis
an advocacy project, I received a letter from a nineteen-year-old inmate who
was convicted of a crime when he was sixteen and automatically waived to an
adult criminal court. For his own protection, because he was a minor, he was
placed on administrative segregation (in solitary confinement) for more than
nine hundred days. He was a special needs student who had an Individualized
Education Program (IEP) and needed educational support, yet, he divulged,
“I don’t ever get to see a teacher or anyone from education . . . I am forced
to try to teach myself.” During one of my visits to a juvenile facility in another
state, educational programs for an entire unit of boys were revoked for two
weeks for disciplinary reasons. The facility superintendent refused to send the
youth to school and also refused to allow the teachers to work with the youth
on their unit.
Although more discourse, scholarly research, and policy changes are
needed, our federal government has made some recent shifts in the right
direction. In December 2014, the Department of Justice and Department of
Education made a joint proclamation that all incarcerated children deserve
a high-quality education and included a federal guidance package outlining
five key principles: a safe and healthy climate within the facility that priori-
tizes education, funding to support educational opportunities for incarcer-
ated youth, recruitment and retention of qualified juvenile justice education
staff, rigorous and relevant curricula, and formal processes and procedures
to assist youth with reentry. Unfortunately, as I’ve found during my visits to
juvenile facilities, many juvenile justice educators are not aware of these prin-
ciples. The lack of research and support in the juvenile justice education field,
coupled with the academic deficits of the incarcerated population and the
facilities’ emphasis on safety and security, force these educators to fall back on
the teaching practices they’ve used in the past: packets of worksheets in the
guise of differentiation or individualized learning plans. A victory at the adult
level, however, occurred in 2016 with the Second Chance Pell Grant program,
which provided the funds for twelve thousand inmates to enroll in sixty-seven
higher learning institutions to pursue postsecondary education (Delaney, Sub-
ramanian, & Patrick, 2016; US Department of Education, 2016).
For many incarcerated youth, schools and communities play a role in their
life trajectories. As researchers and policymakers have noted, it is not enough
to simply look at educational opportunities within facilities, but we also need
to step back, as schools are inextricable from many youths’ experiences within
the justice system (Burdick, Feierman, & McInerney, 2011). Nationwide, more
than 3 million children were suspended and more than 100,000 children
expelled from school during 2011–2012 (Smith & Harper, 2015). Moreover,
during this same school year, nearly 100,000 students were arrested while in
school. Although school resource officers (SROs) were initially trained and
placed in schools in the 1950s to foster positive relationships between police
officers and youth, the focus shifted in the 1990s with the onslaught of school
shootings, and the SROs were deployed to help serve as counselors and make
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19Harvard Educational Review
schools safer (Weiler & Cray, 2011). In this new era, however, schools with
SROs increase the likelihood that students will be criminalized for the nega-
tive behaviors they exhibit in school. Students’ behaviors, once handled by
school administrators or teachers, are now oftentimes handled by law enforce-
ment agents who are housed within schools. According to the Justice Policy
Institute, students in schools with police officers or SROs are eleven times
more likely to be involved with a juvenile court than students in schools with
no officer or SRO (Nelson & Lind, 2015). African American students are three
times more likely than their Caucasian peers to be suspended or expelled for
much more subjective descriptors, such as “being disrespectful” (Nelson &
Lind, 2015). The pattern continues. Children with special needs are also more
likely to end up suspended or expelled than children who don’t have an IEP.
And the vicious cycle continues: all students who are suspended or expelled
are three times more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system
(Nelson & Lind, 2015).
Discourse about the intersection of education and incarceration, about
race and equity, about scholarly research, policies, and practices is critical.
And although we are moving in the right direction on some fronts, there are
still many questions left to consider. One pertinent question we must ask our-
selves is, When does punishment end and the healing or rehabilitation begin?
Or, can the two—punishment and rehabilitation—happen simultaneously? If
someone commits a crime and is sent away to “do their time,” is that not their
punishment? This loss of freedom and distance from loved ones are designed
to “punish” the offender. And yet part of the plan must also be to build up or
rehabilitate, to provide the services needed for those individuals to be success-
ful when they transition back into their communities. If we continue to solely
warehouse juvenile and adult inmates, they will remain as they were when they
entered the facility, or even worse off.
Much more attention, scholarship, and understanding needs to be focused
on the relationship between education and incarceration. This Harvard Edu-
cational Review symposium is a timely collection that increases our cognizance
of the intersection of education and incarceration. When incarcerated popula-
tions are abstractly discussed, it may be easy to forget that these are human lives.
However, as Douglass urged, we must continue to ensure that we do not deny
education to any people—seen or unseen, free or incarcerated.
References
Alexander, M. (2012). The new Jim Crow. New York: The New Press.
Avernick, S. (Writer), & DuVernay, A. (Writer, Director). (2016). 13th [Documentary].
United States: Netflix.
Barnes, H. E. (1921). The historial origin of the prison system in America. Journal of Crimi-
nal Law and Criminology, 12(1), 35–60.
Black, S. (2005). Learning behind bars. American School Board Journal, 192(9), 50–52.
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20Home Page > Reports > Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie
Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie
By Wendy Sawyer
Press Release
February 27, 2018
On any given day, nearly 53,000 youth are held in facilities away from home as a result of juvenile or
criminal justice involvement. Nearly one in ten is held in an adult jail or prison. Even for the youth held
in juvenile “residential placement,”1 the situation is grim; most of them are in similarly restrictive,
correctional-style facilities. Thousands of youths are held before they’ve been found delinquent,2 many
for non-violent, low-level offenses — even for behaviors that aren’t criminal violations.
This report provides an introductory snapshot of what happens when justice-involved youth are held by
the state: where they are held, under what conditions, and for what offenses. It offers a starting point for
people new to the issue to consider the ways that the problems of the criminal justice system are mirrored
in the juvenile system: racial disparities, punitive conditions, pretrial detention, and overcriminalization.
While acknowledging the philosophical, cultural, and procedural differences between the adult and
juvenile justice systems,3 the report highlights these issues as areas ripe for reform for youth as well as
adults.
Demographics and disparities among confined youth
21You can also read
