In California, an Effort to Stop Locking Up Truants

Photo credit: Geoff Stearns, Flickr

With all the talk about ending the school-to-prison pipeline, many people may be surprised to learn that California still, in the year 2014, allows kids to be locked up for not going to school. On its face, state law prohibits this, but court decisions have created a loophole that allows incarceration when truants are deemed to be in contempt based on their truancy. Although a majority of California counties do not use this practice, a few persist in locking up truants. Senate Bill 1296 — the Decriminalization of Truancy Act, authored by state Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, would close the loophole.

There are good reasons to support these efforts. The young people who wind up in juvenile court for truancy often have serious problems that are only made worse by incarceration. Youth who experience incarceration are less likely to complete their education and more likely to experience problems in becoming employed. This should not come as a surprise. Every day a young person is incarcerated is another day they are not in school. And while state law requires truants to be separated from delinquent youth, their treatment is virtually indistinguishable from the treatment of youth who have committed a crime. Many are held in what amounts to solitary confinement. This is literally the school-to-prison pipeline.

http://jjie.org/op-ed-in-california-an-effort-to-stop-locking-up-truants/106704/