In the past three years, more than 1,000 Texas teenagers – most black or Hispanic, and most of them very poor – have spent time in jail on charges stemming from cutting class. Students whose families were unable to pay the heavy fines associated with their truancy found themselves in a version of debtors’ prison, and time in jail meant already-struggling students fell even further behind in school, reports BuzzFeed News.
From the story:
While in jail, students told BuzzFeed News, they witnessed adult inmates beating each other and soliciting sex. Still, some young people said their jail stint startled them into recognizing the value of school — a point echoed by proponents of the system... .But many other students said that jail scarred them by making them feel like failures or, in some cases, by exacerbating preexisting mental illnesses. One student was housed in solitary confinement for most of his 11-day sentence in 2013, leaving only to spend 48 hours under suicide watch in the infirmary, according to jail officials. He said he is now on anxiety medications to mitigate panic attacks that overwhelm him when he sees a police car. Another, Cade Soergel of Plano, said that he has bipolar disorder, and that his three-day stint in jail last year ‘drove me insane.’ He said he contemplated suicide.
Read the full story from Buzzfeed here.