October 23, 2015
Juvenile Justice and the School to Prison Pipeline: Reevaluating the United States Juvenile Justice System in accordance to international guidelines
The United States of America has a critical justice issue that is plaguing how it will plan and achieve its future. New education reforms enacted in the early 21st century are now creating a suspension funneling effect into the juvenile and adult criminal justice system, primarily effecting children of color, minor girls, and overall harming the entire youth and fate of the US. In addition to the horrors of the American juvenile justice, the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, at 1.6 million people and rising. It also happens to be the only and last country to not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a United Nations human rights treaty that justifies all rights of children. If the US signed this document, it would be the first and only time in history that the humanity has agree upon an international treaty.
Unfortunately, the US does not subscribe to international law. Due to individual state rights, there is a clear lack of consistency of justice reform for children, which allows for continuous violations to exist and amount. Through a year long study of education and justice policy action, I will explore how the US violates and does not fulfill it’s international obligations to protect it’s youth education, justice, and future. From a United Nations Juvenile Justice NGO in Geneva, Switzerland, to a teaching experience comparing US and foreign education, and finally a 50 state research survey conducted with the University of California Irvine School of Law about youth education and justice practices, this presentation will explore current violations in our youth system and recommendations for more humanitarian practices in the future. With the intention to highlight that the children of today will be the adults of tomorrow and by failing them, we fail everyone.
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