The Obama administration has a message for juvenile detention facilities: all kids—even youth with disabilities held in solitary confinement—are entitled to appropriate public education.
That was the assertion made in mid-February by the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice when the agencies filed what advocates are calling a rare joint statement in response to a federal lawsuit over how California’s Contra Costa County treats its incarcerated youth.
Advocates allege that the county’s juvenile hall—which serves tony suburbs such as Danville and poorer, working class cities including Richmond—violate the rights of youth with disabilities by locking them up in isolation and denying them access to their education in the process. The lawsuit and the statements by the Obama administration come at a time when the country is grappling with the practice of solitary confinement and its widespread use throughout the criminal and juvenile justice systems.
http://www.publicceo.com/2014/03/lawsuit-juvenile-solitary-confinement-blocks-education/
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