Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy says that last school year, the number of students sent to court for getting in trouble in class has dropped by 6 percent across the state. But at some schools, the rate dropped more than 21 percent.
Schools with the highest drop in kids getting sent to the juvenile system host a special “school-based referral program.” So students acting out get referred to mental health professionals, instead of the police.
Malloy made the announcement at Wallace Middle School in Waterbury, where 55 percent fewer kids got sent to court last year.
“We are ending the so-called school to prison pipeline, and quite frankly we’re doing it with great programs like the one that we celebrate here at this wonderful school.”
Malloy says in his opinion, sending a young person to the justice system teaches them to study to be a criminal.
A state report released last year said that the best predictor of whether kids end up in the adult corrections system, is that they were in the juvenile system first.