Introductions

Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Jan. 8, 2014

The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners; it is no exaggeration to call our national approach to criminal justice "mass incarceration." And our prison cells are disproportionately filled with poor men of color, especially African-American men. Mass incarceration is one of the paramount civil rights and economic justice issues of our day.

Zero-tolerance discipline policies in American schools have often led to the criminalization of student misbehavior and the creation of what many call the "school-to-prison pipeline." What are the alternatives to zero-tolerance discipline policies? How do we ensure that our schools become vehicles for escaping poverty and constructing meaningful, productive lives as democratic citizens, and not the starting point of an institutional arrangement that ends in mass incarceration?

For more information go to: www.shankerinstitute.org

PANELISTS:
U.S. REP. KEITH ELLISON, Fifth District, Minnesota; Co-Chair, House Progressive Caucus;
Member, Congressional Black Caucus

JAMES FORMAN, JR., Professor, Yale Law School; Founder, Educational Opportunity and
Juvenile Justice Clinic, Yale Law School; Co-Founder, Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools

RANDI WEINGARTEN, President, American Federation of Teachers and The Albert Shanker Institute

Moderator: BURNIE BOND, Director of Programs, The Albert Shanker Institute

Видео Introductions канала Albert Shanker Institute