under vic rothchild how many CCISD children were sent into the pipe line ? DRop outs or incarcerated............

under vic rothchild how many CCISD children were sent into the pipe line ? DRop outs or incarcerated




Hello all - we finally got the Birmingham School Offense Protocol signed
and the press has been amazing!!!!! Note brand new very useful data
from the school offense protocol pioneer, Clayton County (GA)....since
the protocol was signed in Clayton in 2004, graduation rates are up by
20%! For more info, feel free to contact me, Brian Huff (judge in
Birmingham at huffb@jccal.org), or Steve Teske (judge in Georgia at
Steve.Teske@co.clayton.ga.us). Also see PPts by both judges on the JDAI
HelpDesk here
,
titled "Narrowing the School-to-Detention Pipeline." (Just click cancel
when the site asks for a password.) and be looking for an article in
The Nation next week about Delaware and the school offense protocols.



Opinions, Editorials and Letters to the Editor from The Birmingham News

OUR VIEW: Birmingham city schools trying new policy to keep kids in
class, not in court

By Birmingham News editorial board


October 13, 2009, 5:40AM

"One more smart comment, and I'll have you arrested!"

A smart-aleck student is annoying, sure, but arresting him for a bad
attitude is, at the least, an overreaction; at worst, it's outright
irresponsible. Yet, too often in recent years, Birmingham school
students have been handcuffed and hauled off to Jefferson County Family
Court for a smart mouth or other relatively minor misbehavior.

Credit Birmingham schools interim Superintendent Barbara Allen, Family
Court presiding Judge Brian Huff and Police Chief A.C. Roper for
recognizing and understanding the serious problem and working to correct
it. They, along with the Department of Human Resources and the Jefferson
County district attorney's office, make up a group known as the
Birmingham City Schools Collaborative and have developed a new
discipline protocol to keep children safe, in school, and out of both
trouble and handcuffs. In the process, the new policy may help the city
schools increase a dismal graduation rate, currently at 52 percent,
according to Huff.

The agreement will be signed today at Jackson-Olin High School. (See
story here

3290.xml&coll=2 .)

Studies have shown arrests and graduation rates are related. A
first-time arrest during high school nearly doubles the chances a
student will drop out of school; a court appearance nearly quadruples
the chances of a student dropping out.

Yet, here's what has been happening in Birmingham schools, according to
Huff: Over the past two years, Family Court has received almost 1,000
referrals from city schools. About 98 percent of those referrals are for
misdemeanors and for fighting without weapons. A schoolyard scrap should
not end in arrests.

Nobody is arguing that serious violations -- a student with a weapon or
drugs, or an assault on a teacher or principal -- should be overlooked.
But in Birmingham schools, children have been sent to Family Court for
cursing, being loud and engaging in food fights. While Birmingham
educates 25 percent of the public school students in the area, 82
percent of the students referred to Family Court come from city schools.


As Roper said: "Too many of these kids have been criminalized." And once
they've been identified as criminals, they are more likely to continue
acting as criminals.

Another point Huff makes is that because 99 percent of the complaints
filed are against African-American children, "we have been sending the
message to black children that you are more difficult to deal with than
white children," Huff said. "It's the wrong message to send because it
isn't true."

The new Birmingham policy is based on a policy in Clayton County, Ga.,
schools, used since 2004. In Clayton County, the policy has reduced
court referrals by 60 percent and increased the graduation rate 20
percent, Huff said.

School resource officers -- police who patrol the halls of city schools
-- need to be concerned with serious matters, not with minor discipline
violations that should be dealt with by school officials. The new
protocol should keep Birmingham schools focused on their true mission:
educating kids, not arresting them.

Related coverage:

*

(10/13/09)
*

290.xml&coll=2 (10/10/09)
*

38487334235740.xml&coll=2 (3/31/09)

**********************************************************************

Danielle J. Lipow

Director, Juvenile Justice Policy Group

Southern Poverty Law Center

403 Washington Avenue

Montgomery, Alabama 36104

Tel. (334) 956-8336

Fax (334) 956-8481



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an Aug. 8 letter from Eric Nichols, deputy assistant attorney general for criminal justice, "The agency is in a position to know best what to do." 4u?

Youth Commission changes course on older offenders

Agency head says 19- and 20-year-olds will stay in youth system.

By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

After three months of wrangling over the proposed transfer of more than 150 19- and 20-year-old offenders to adult corrections programs, Texas Youth Commission officials on Tuesday said they have decided to keep more than half of them in youth lockups.

It was the first public indication that keeping those offenders in Youth Commission lockups was even an option. In May, the Legislature ended the troubled agency's jurisdiction over the older offenders.

Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN (enlarge photo) Dimitria Pope said lawmakers were told of new plan; one disputes that.

Since then, the issue has sparked a headline-grabbing controversy over whether to transfer the youths to adult parole programs and prisons and whether their names and other details should be disclosed in the interest of public safety.

On Tuesday, Dimitria Pope, the agency's acting executive director, announced that 79 of 159 older offenders will be kept in agency lockups, and another 40 will remain on Youth Commission parole.

Only 24 will be transferred to adult parole, and eight are being referred to judges for re-sentencing to an adult prison, she said. Another eight have been released because they turned 21.

In June, Youth Commission officials proposed transferring about 130 of what was then 156 offenders to adult parole and 17 to adult prisons. No decision had been made about what to do with the rest.

By late August, Pope was telling a legislative committee that the agency had a plan to get all of the older offenders out of Youth Commission custody — and that most would go to into the adult system.

Pope said Tuesday that lawmakers had been briefed on the agency's new decision.

But House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, an author of the law and co-chairman of a special legislative committee overseeing Youth Commission reforms, disputed that.

"I have not been briefed by anyone ... and I can tell you that our legislative intent was to get the 19- and 20-year-olds out of TYC facilities," Madden said. "I have no idea how they've come up with this. I continue to be surprised and amazed by some decisions out there."

New details disclosed by the Youth Commission on Tuesday show that nearly all the older offenders are serving time for violent and aggravated crimes, including robbery, assault, sexual assault, capital murder and manslaughter.

Pope said the decision to keep most of the offenders in Youth Commission custody was made so they can continue in treatment programs.

Asked why some youths were still being transferred to adult parole and prison if her agency could legally retain custody, Pope said the cases were decided on an individual basis by a Youth Commission review panel and signed off on by the attorney general's office. She gave no further details.

In June, after the law took effect, Youth Commission officials had moved to transfer all 19- and 20-year-olds from their custody because, as they insisted at the time, lawmakers had removed their jurisdiction to continue holding them. Sponsors of Senate Bill 103 said that the older offenders had no place mingling with younger offenders — and that rehabilitation and discipline in youth prisons could be improved with them gone.

Pope cited an Aug. 8 letter from Eric Nichols, deputy assistant attorney general for criminal justice, that she said gave her agency permission to continue holding the 19- and 20-year-olds. Just weeks ago, the same letter was being quoted by lawmakers to bolster their argument that the same offenders should leave the Youth Commission.

Nichols could not be reached for comment on his intent. But Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said "the letter is still valid. ... It speaks for itself."

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, Madden's co-chairman on the special committee, said that although the goal of the new law "was to get the 19- and 20-year-olds out ... I support the agency's decision to do this."

"Coming out of the legislative session, there was a drumbeat to get them all out as quickly as possible, but now I think the AG's office has given them an alternative," Whitmire said. "The agency is in a position to know best what to do."

Your Comments Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our visitor's agreement