Criminalization and Justice

This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange on June 24, 2020.

Above: Tre’mall McGee - photo courtesy of Tiffany McGee

This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange on June 16, 2020.

Who shot Tre’mall McGee?

Editor’s Note: The following email, which was shared with Daryl Khan, is from an individual currently incarcerated in Angola. It has been lightly edited for clarity and the author's identity has been withheld for fear of retribution. This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

Editor’s note: Many of the women interviewed for this story requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. They said they are worried about what would happen to their loved ones on the inside for their speaking out or revealing their correspondence. This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

They won’t give his name. They won’t give his age, either. Or any other identifying information other than that he is a male and was in custody at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in Louisiana. Sent to a hospital for a drug overdose, he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Helen Frazier, the mother of Jordan Frazier, holds up a Christmas tree ornament memorializing her son in December. Photo credit: Clarissa Sosin

By Daryl Khan and Clarissa Sosin

This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

By Daryl Khan and Clarissa Sosin

This story originally appeared on Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

BATON ROUGE, La. — The young woman sat on a mattress in the middle of the floor of her bedroom in North Baton Rouge. Open in front of her was the diary she started after her friend, Jordan Frazier, was shot and killed by a Baton Rouge Police officer during a traffic stop. The entry was dated June 27, 2017, just more than a week after his death.

Monday’s viral video of a young student being flipped and flung from her desk by Deputy Ben Fields at South Carolina’s Spring Valley High School, is certainly not the first to expose the growing concern for the overreaction and over policing of children, and in particular children of color.

While questions remain for some, America can no longer bare the cost of these continuing acts of assault upon those to whom we as adults are obligated to protect.

How young is too young for a child to be suspended from school? According to the state of Louisiana, which suspended over 1,000 Kindergarteners last year, there is no age cut off. However, thanks to a bill proposed by State Senator Weston-Broome that might soon change.

All children have the right to an education. However, harsh disciplinary practices regularly deprive students of that right through the use of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions—which often serve to feed students into the school-to-prison pipeline.