Manifest Destiny

Many get caught breaking a law, get arrested, and then—in the words of Michelle Alexander—are “shuttled from their decrepit, underfunded inner city schools to brand-new, high-tech prisons.” If they are released they are relegated back to the same broken households and education systems that failed them in the first place, this time mandated to experience different results or return to prison. Many of these young people are tracked for prison by third grade and labeled criminals by the time they reach their teen years.

Third grade?

3rd grade testing data has been used to estimate future prison populations,...