Fair Schools, Safe Communities
Our communities are safer and our schools fairer when laws and policies are grounded in evidence. It’s time for Alabama’s laws to reflect this common-sense approach.
Fair Schools
Fair schools will remain out of reach until Alabama has dismantled its school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline is shorthand for a misguided and counterproductive system that pushes children out of public schools and seriously increases the likelihood that they will end up in the juvenile and adult justice systems.
Inspired in part by the misguided “tough on crime” rhetoric that dominated criminal justice decision-making for much of the past 50 years, and by knee-jerk responses to tragic school shootings such as Columbine in the 1990s, the policies underpinning the school-to-prison pipeline lack evidence-based support. Worse, they have been found to be harmful to our youth and communities.
To create safer, more effective, and fairer school environments, we are working to:
Support research-based alternatives that give educators more tools to positively manage student behavior.
Research-based programs like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) have been shown to improve student behavior and create a more positive school environment, thus reducing schools’ reliance on harmful and needlessly punitive practices. Alabama must expand PBIS and other research-based programs to all Alabama public schools.
Eliminate police involvement in school disciplinary matters.
School resource officers (SROs) are sworn Alabama law enforcement officers stationed on school grounds. There are no statewide guidelines to govern the authority or mission of SROs, resulting in inconsistent relationships between schools and SROs across Alabama. Thus, while some SROs may focus on maintaining a safe school environment, others may unnecessarily involve themselves in student misbehavior that is more appropriately handled by a teacher or administrator in the school setting. Alabama must clarify that the role of SROs is to ensure school safety, not criminalize adolescent conduct.
Limit conduct that permits suspensions and expulsions.
During the 2013-2014 school year, 63,602 Alabama children were suspended or expelled. That’s an average of over 350 suspensions or expulsions each school day in Alabama. Students who face suspension or expulsion are more likely to drop out of school. Children should be educated, not pushed out. Alabama must ensure its policies governing suspensions and expulsions are rooted in research, not fear.
Safe Communities
To improve public safety, Alabama must rethink its approach to criminal justice. Alabama has the fifth highest incarceration rate in the United States, yet also one of America’s highest crime rates. We must recognize that incarceration is a costly, inhumane, and often ineffective solution to making our communities safer.
Our goal is to make our communities safer, reduce the burden on taxpayers, and begin to address the the staggering racial disparities in Alabama’s criminal justice system.
To foster safer communities, we are working to:
Prioritize mental health treatment.
Cuts to mental health services funnel Alabamians with untreated mental health issues into our prisons and jails, and jeopardize the lives of law enforcement, who are forced into the role of mental health first responders. Alabama must provide appropriate community-based mental health services.
End the war on drugs.
For almost 50 years we have tried to arrest our way out of a public health problem. It has failed – drugs are just as available and cheap as ever. Alabama law must reflect the basic reality that drug addiction is a public health, not criminal justice issue.
Keep children in the juvenile justice system.
We recognize that children are different – they cannot vote, buy alcohol or tobacco, or gamble. Yet Alabama law allows children as young as 14 to be tried in adult court and sent to adult prison. This response ignores children’s increased aptitude for rehabilitation, and their increased susceptibility to being sexually assaulted or committing suicide if incarcerated with adults. Alabama must end the practice of trying children as adults.
Rein in criminal justice debt.
Criminal court fees have become funding stream for basic government services, including county general funds, employee pay raises, and museums. These fees disproportionately ensnare low-income people of color in a hard-to-escape cycles of debt. Alabama must stop relying on its courts as a tool to generate revenue.
Remove hurdles to reentry.
Alabama continues to erect counterproductive barriers in front of former offenders returning to their communities, such as arbitrary limitations on employment and housing – two key factors to reducing recidivism. Alabama must eliminate collateral consequences that prevent successful reentry.
Ensure law enforcement is transparent and accountable to the people.
People should know more about their government than the government knows about its people. Yet, weak open government laws, the lack of transparency around police/community interactions, and the use of programs that incentivize the pursuit of profit over the fair administration of justice have undermined this basic principle of democracy. Alabama must improve law enforcement/community relations, end policing for profit, and ensure open and transparent government.
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Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice
400 South Union Street, Suite 355
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
2 Office Park Circle, Suite 10
Birmingham, AL 35223
Phone: (205) 963-7999
admin@alabamaappleseed.org