Their stories depict how our education systems track those who are going to be placed into the cycle of the criminal justice system. Interviewees illustrate how our criminal justice system is locking up “people we are mad at” instead of the “people we are afraid of.” Demetra had 11 charges by the age of 14, diagnosed with anxiety, placed in juvenile jail 3 times, and placed into juvenile housing after assaulting her aunt (guardian). She stated multiple times throughout the documentary, that being incarcerated never taught her a life lesson, and only made her angry. She had barely entered high school, and already had been a placed into the cycle of incarceration. Incarceration has become used as the answer to every social problem. Incarceration has been used for students of color who are not doing well in school or fighting or acquiring truancy. The implementation of disciplinary policies only perpetuates problems by fulfilling a short term solution of “treatment,” instead of deeper involvement with children like Demetra in order to create a long-term solution. However, this is not a single story, but one that mark Black and Hispanic students who “represent over 70 percent of the students arrested or referred to law enforcement at school” (Heitzeg 100). Students of color are labeled as criminals, which moves them from one stage to the next: …show more content…
Before her court hearing she wrote a prayer to God, discussing how she did not know who she was, how she had nothing to live for, nothing to become. She said “I am useless, and ready to die.” During this time, her self-efficacy, hope, and a vision of a way out of her life was non-existent. She did not understand why she was sentenced to jail for skipping school, and described how the handcuffs made her feel like she was going to hurt