US students jailed for slightest infringement

[outsider]

In Mississippi, Dress Code Violations and Back-Talk Send Students Straight to Jail: Department of Justice uncovers vicious "school-to-prison" pipeline:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/08/11/mississippi-dress-code-viol ations-and-back-talk-send-students-straight-jail?cmpid=tp-internal-tab oola

'This isn’t the first time Lauderdale County has come under fire for its treatment of juveniles. In 2009, the Southern Poverty Law Center (this is an extremely dodgy outfit, but in this case it seems they are on the 'side of the angels), a nonprofit civil rights group, initiated a federal class action lawsuit against the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility for its “shockingly inhumane” practices. The center alleged that kids were "crammed into small, filthy cells and tormented with the arbitrary use of Mace as a punishment for even the most minor infractions -- such as 'talking too much' or failing to sit in the 'back of their cells.'"

In response to the suit, Lauderdale County officials pledged to reform their juvenile system, but according to this recent investigation, those reforms never happened.

The letter also details constitutional violations at every level of the county’s juvenile penal system. It alleges that the Meridian Police Department arrests children without probable cause and instead operates as a “taxi service” between schools and detention centers. “By policy and practice, [the Meridian Police Department] MPD automatically arrests all students referred to MPD by the District. The children arrested by MPD are then sent to the County juvenile justice system, where existing due process protections are illusory and inadequate.”

Lauderdale County officials have not yet released a statement in response to the Department of Justice investigation. The federal agency is giving them 60 days to end constitutional violations before it brings a federal lawsuit against state, county, and city officials...'

Why on earth give them any time at all? A 'cease & desist' should immediately be imposed, and a case brought against those responsible.
America - Land of the Free????