{"id":23753,"date":"2020-03-18T12:26:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T19:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=23753"},"modified":"2022-03-18T04:19:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T11:19:32","slug":"seclusion-rooms-prisons-jails-the-empire-strikes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=23753","title":{"rendered":"Seclusion rooms, prisons, jails: The empire strikes back"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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In schools across the United States, seclusion rooms\u00a0exist as a \u201clast resort\u201d practice<\/a>\u00a0for educators to restrain and lock \u201cmisbehaving\u201d children in isolated rooms. This practice\u00a0criminalizes behavior at an early age and normalizes the use of solitary confinement<\/a>. Data on the use of seclusion rooms is often underreported or nonexistent, making them hard to regulate. In Wilmington, North Carolina, for example, there were\u00a0over 930 reported instances<\/a>\u00a0of seclusion reported in Hanover County in 2019. The school district\u00a0failed to include<\/a>\u00a0protocols for these seclusion rooms as well as a crisis management plan on how to meet the needs of children in their yearly handbook. A lack of accountability accompanies these failures. How often does absence of data excuse action?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

With seclusion rooms\u00a0currently under the spotlight<\/a>, there have been efforts across the United States to control their use through legislation. On March 4th,\u00a0Missouri legislature made strides in a House Bill<\/a>\u00a0(HB 1568) that would establish a ban on seclusion and restraint rooms \u201cexcept in cases where there is imminent danger to the student or others\u201d. Who decides the exception?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Recently, it was\u00a0reported that high schools in Leeds, England<\/a>\u00a0place students in isolation rooms for doing as little as forgetting books or wearing earrings. How does punishment for actions as minor as this in the education system set a precedent for how individuals are treated by the state as adults?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While legislation to address the use of seclusion rooms is a step in the right direction in terms of initiating conversations and setting precedent, it does not ensure they won\u2019t continue to be used and abused. This exception is seen in cases facing the courts in the United States right now that impact women, such as the recent prosecution of Harvey Weinstein.\u00a0His sentencing<\/a>\u00a0may have shed light on the issues of sexual harassment and misconduct, but\u00a0it isn\u2019t a cure-all for the deep rooted problem<\/a>\u00a0of why it exists and persists. Loopholes and justifications of abuse will continue, especially against women and people of color. How can we make sense of that and move forward knowing that\u00a0most women behind bars have been victims<\/a>\u00a0of physical and sexual violence or other trauma?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How much persistence does it take to dismantle structures and systems?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Atlanta City Detention Center, a Georgia jail for minor violations such as walking in the roadways or shoplifting, was\u00a0shut down in May 2019 following years of organizing efforts by Women on the Rise<\/a>. Led by women impacted by the criminal justice system, Women on the Rise spent years organizing to prevent and repeal legislation that funneled many into the jail. Built in 1996, the jail was intended to hide undesirable residents including the homeless during the Olympics, a testament to how individuals in the city were\/are grouped and deemed disposable.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Across the country,\u00a075% of people housed in jails aren\u2019t convicted of a crime<\/a>\u00a0and are awaiting trial. If women are the fastest growing populations behind bars, and women of color make up approximately two-thirds of that population, what impact does that have?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The prison system doesn\u2019t function like a recycling center, but a garbage dump. Actions and behaviors of individuals are not assessed for mitigation but deemed unworthy of salvaging. Even short jail time puts individuals, particularly women of color, at risk of losing the security of their jobs and their homes both in the present and the future. It\u2019s a branding that lingers through the presence of the checkbox on job applications and federal documents that accompanies the question: \u201cDo you have a criminal record?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Why is it okay to uproot someone from their community without justifiable means, assuming their life is expendable? So many individuals with low income jobs worked their way to be where they are. They can\u2019t afford to spend time in jail, and they can\u2019t afford to miss work.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Now in a sudden global health crisis with the\u00a0novel coronavirus outbreak<\/a>, it is predicted that the\u00a0lack of paid sick leave\u00a0<\/a>in the United States will make the epidemic even worse. What happens to single moms with multiple jobs and lower incomes that can\u2019t work remotely or afford to take off work? These systemic issues are manifesting into health concerns, but it isn’t anything new. Roughly\u00a025 percent of workers<\/a>\u00a0in the United States do not have paid sick leave. On top of that,\u00a0no federal legislation has ever been passed<\/a>\u00a0for paid family leave. What impact does that have on women? Job security in the hands of the employer leaves workers with little or no choice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s almost as if these issues are being brought to light not out of concern for those impacted by them, but out of concern for the well-being of the rest of the population. They are a threat. It\u2019s as if the argument is being raised that in a wealthy democracy, there should be a mandate for paid leave…but not because it’s the right thing to do, but for the public safety of everyone else. It\u2019s a protection of the empire.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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(Photo Credit: Workers World<\/a> \/ Women on the Rise) (Image Credit: Communities Over Cages: Close the Jail Atlanta<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In schools across the United States, seclusion rooms\u00a0exist as a \u201clast resort\u201d practice\u00a0for educators to restrain and lock \u201cmisbehaving\u201d children in isolated rooms. This practice\u00a0criminalizes behavior at an early age and normalizes the use of solitary confinement. Data on the use of seclusion rooms is often underreported or nonexistent, making them hard to regulate. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6478,789,6481,500,484,6482,296],"class_list":["post-23753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-anna-rawls","tag-atlanta","tag-close-the-jail-atlanta","tag-seclusion-rooms","tag-solitary-confinement","tag-women-on-the-rise","tag-women-prisoners","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25785,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753\/revisions\/25785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}