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The Toll of Zero-Tolerance Discipline

February 19, 2014 | MSNBC
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Images by Carlos Javier Ortiz

Half of the high-school-aged kids locked up at the St. Charles youth prison west of Chicago are not getting full-time classes because there are not enough teachers. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

A teen in his cell at Illinois Youth Center, a youth prison in Chicago. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Arthur Burgess, 19, of the 500 block of East 32nd Street, died at the scene after he was shot in West Englewood on a cold winter night. His friend was shot twice. One of the bullets hit his arm and the other hit his leg. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

A view of the confinement unit from outside the perimeter of the Joliet maximum security youth prison in Joliet, Ill. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Handcuffs used to transport youth prison inmates in Joliet prison in Joliet, Ill. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

The caged-in areas where high-school-aged inmates are held in solitary confinement in St. Charles prison west of Chicago. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

A view of the confinement unit at Joliet maximum security youth prison in Joliet, Ill. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Inmates at Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp program in Chicago. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Fourteen-year-old Juan Cazares was fatally shot while playing basketball at Cornell Square Park in Chicago. The teen had friends in gangs but denied being in one. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Inmate participants attend an 18-week program at the Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp in Chicago. Education is part of this program. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Inmates attend an 18-week program at the Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp in Chicago. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Inmate participants attend an 18-week program at the Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp in Chicago. Image by Carlos Javier Ortiz. United States, 2010.

Young black and Latino men are being churned out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system at an astounding rate. Despite modest gains in high school graduation rates, far too often young men of color become fodder for the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, a euphemism for institutional criminalization that for decades has filled prison cells disproportionately with youthful black and brown faces. Across the country, poor, minority and special needs boys especially face the wrath of so-called zero-tolerance school discipline policies that subject them to suspensions, expulsions and arrest at a disproportionate rate for committing similar infractions as their white counterparts.

To read the full article, written by Elissa Curtis and Trymaine Lee, click here.