User:Alex McGill/sandbox

Education
Today ‘zero tolerance’ and ‘get tough’ policies, also seen with the War on Drugs, are more prevalent in American schools, and they help contribute to the criminalization of many children in the US. The prison industrial complex and the education system are indeed two connected institutions; for instance, reading scores are used as indicators to count for the amount of prison beds a state will need in the future. In the US it is now a more familiar site to see a police officer patrolling a school. Also, security cameras, picture IDs, and uniforms being used in US schools is becoming more common. All of the factors above are why some proponents of the abolition of the PIC believe that education, as an institution, is becoming a space of carcerality rather than a space for learning and development. ‘Zero tolerance’ policies in our schools seem to criminalize US youth, and in particular, youth from underrepresented communities.

On a given day in the US there are about 90,000 youth incarcerated, and of these youth, two thirds are African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander, and these groups only represent one third of the total youth in the US. Of those incarcerated, a disproportionate amount of youth had received sexual, mental, and/or physical abuse at one point in their lives. Institutionalization, unfortunately, is related to lack of education, mental illness, and poverty. Also, mental health services in the US have been receiving less financial support from the government. Proponents of the abolition of the prison industrial complex would argue that our society needs to not invest in prisons, and instead invest in education, healthcare, and other social services that do not contribute to the expansion of the Prison Industrial Complex.