VALDOSTA — Can the new council plug the school to prison pipeline?
In a promising show of solidarity, the leadership of all three branches of Georgia’s government recently joined together to endorse the creation of the 2011 Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform. The legislation that creates the new Council, House Bill 265, is sponsored by both Republican and Democratic leaders in the Georgia House of Representatives. Given the governor’s clear support, HB 265 will probably be enacted into law. Because of the reality of a financially overburdened criminal justice system that begs reform, the potential economic impact of this law is not regionally restricted. South Georgia will benefit from a critical analysis of the state’s existing system.
When the newly formed council gets down to business, it is likely that it will recognize the undeniable connections between our criminal justice system and our public education system. It is no coincidence that Georgia is ranked in the top 10 in the nation in incarcerating its adults and, in the context of secondary education, by many measures, has failed to meet national standards.
On any given day, 60 to 70 percent of our state prison population is made up of men and women who dropped out of high school. As surprising as it may seem, for many of these individuals the road to prison began in school — a result of the public school discipline process. In the last two decades, many school districts in Georgia and around the country adopted stringent “get tough” student discipline policies, including zero tolerance provisions. Over time, however, the decision to “get tough” has resulted in an unintended negative consequence that many call “the school to prison pipeline.”
Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice is focused on solving problems that affect the lives of those who live and work in Georgia. Leveraging the volunteer hours of lawyers and other professionals, Georgia Appleseed has studied seven years of state and district level school data to understand the growing problem of the “school to prison pipeline.” Georgia Appleseed seeks to stop the flow in the school to prison pipeline with practical and achievable solutions, much like what the House leadership seeks to accomplish through HB 265.
With the real need to instill in our youth the value of personal responsibility and accountability for one’s actions, solving this “school to prison” challenge will not be easy. Georgia must balance its interest in maintaining a lawful society against the importance of cultivating a significant pool of future productive citizens. Our schools must maintain for all students a safe learning environment and for each student the reasonable opportunity to complete a quality high school education.
It is our hope that the new council will work to shine a light on the need for a focused assessment on K-12 public school student discipline practices. Slowing or stopping the flow in the school to prison pipeline will go a long way in reforming the criminal justice system in our state.
Laverne Lewis Gaskins of Valdosta is a member and on the board of directors, Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Sharon N. Hill is the executive director, Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
Circumstances:
The circumstances under which we live: rules, regulations, health care, taxes, etc., will not change until those who create such things live likewise.
The Constitution guarantees us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, our guarantees are unlike those guarantees afforded our congressional members.
They receive high salaries for part-time work, have superb retirement, real health care packages, and automatically get pay raises unless voted down each year by themselves which has little in common with the voters who put them in office. They ignore what is best for the country — disregarding public opinion — health care being the best example.
They get the best doctors and the best treatment in this country. They have their own health care facility with physicians and nurses within the bastion where they work! They exempted themselves from Obama care — if Obama care is such a great program, why do they not want it for themselves?
On Department of Defense airplanes, the travel is free to the members with food and liquor provided for themselves, family members, and others, sometimes requiring multiple aircraft for staffers, press, and hair dressers. They travel too much. They need to serve the constituents of this country by staying at home. They also travel by limousine with assigned drivers while everyone else has to pay for car maintenance, gas, insurance, etc.
I don’t enjoy these same perks, do you?
Then, when these trusted individuals get to Washington, they are afforded an office with a staff. They have their own gymnasium, bank, laundry service and barber shop — so don’t feel sorry for them when the news reporters tell you they are sleeping on their couches.
In conclusion, the debt owed by our country is going to collapse the dome of the Capitol if spending is not brought under control. These people must stop being super spenders and must live the lifestyle that their constituents are required to live in order for all of us to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
W. Troy Tolbert
Valdosta
Support the Red Cross
March is Red Cross Month and the American Red Cross is asking you to join us in providing help and hope to people in need.
The Red Cross works tirelessly to help those who need assistance, whether down the street, across the country, or around the world. We respond to disasters, help members of the military, provide blood for those in need and teach lifesaving skills.
When you help with a gift of your time, your blood donation, or your financial gift, you join the Red Cross. We want to thank those supporters whose generosity helps ensure we are able to continue our service to those who need us. Thanks to them, the Red Cross is there when needed most.
To date, in our fiscal year, the American Red Cross has responded to over 175 emergencies in our 11-county area, assisted 200 military families and trained over 2,000 people in lifesaving skills. And people from this area donated 13,639 red cells and 1,833 platelets to the Blood Services Center.
Nationally, the Red Cross responds to disasters nearly 200 times every day. The organization provides an around-the-clock link between those in the military and their families, and supplies blood and blood products to approximately 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.
Red Cross Month is a great time for people to join the Red Cross. Please give blood, or sign up to be one of our volunteers. Please take one of our lifesaving training classes. Please give a financial gift. Please join us and enable us to continue our work, both here at home and around the world.
Terri Jenkins
Executive Director
South Georgia Group
(Valdosta, Thomasville & Moultrie)
A right to take it all
Liberal Democrats must be delighted with the high gasoline prices. Their Environmental Protection Agency-mandated policies, drilling restrictions, mining restrictions and emphasis on “green” energy have all raised the price at the pump. They just want us all to buy dinky little cars or ride their subsidized train.
It is our right to drive any car we want. If we want to move ourselves around one at a time in a vehicle the size of a Sherman tank it’s our right. It’s our right to drill anywhere we want, mine any way we can and produce whatever we can sell. Government restrictions prevent energy production and cost jobs.
It’s our right to cut the tops off of mountains, clear cut our forests, poke holes in the ocean floor and remove everything that is there. It’s our right to burn as much coal as we need even if the soot and ash blot out the sun. It’s our right to dispose of industrial waste without regard to mercury in our drinking water or benzene in our air. It’s our right to extract and consume every last drop of sustenance this nation has to offer. It’s our right to leave behind us a despoiled, depleted and completely desecrated hollow shell of a nation devoid of all resources and unfit for habitation.
These are our rights and we don’t need liberals to infringe upon them. When we get through exercising our rights they can go hug a tree, if they can find one.
Michael Harris
Hahira
Congratulations LHS mock trial team
On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia, I would like to congratulate the members of the Lowndes High School mock trial team on their recent championship victory in the Region 1 competition held in Albany. We wish them well in the upcoming state competition March 18-20 in Lawrenceville.
The State Bar’s Young Lawyers Division is proud to be a co-sponsor of this annual competition as a unique learning experience for the students, a vehicle for an enhanced understanding of the justice system and, ideally, an excellent training ground for future law students and attorneys. We are especially grateful to the many Georgia lawyers who assist their local schools as volunteer coaches and judges of the mock trial competitions.
Since 1988, the Georgia High School Mock Trial program has served thousands of students while also promoting the cause of justice and upholding the integrity of the legal profession in our state.
S. Lester Tate III
President
State Bar of Georgia
