The Right to Education in the Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems in the United States

Report Submitted to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education

On December 31, 2008 the Dignity in Schools Campaign and six organizations — including the ACLU — submitted a report on the right to education in U.S. juvenile and criminal justice facilities to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Mr. Vernor Muñoz. The report documents the school to prison pipeline; demographic and educational characteristics of the juvenile and adult incarcerated populations; the lack of adequate access to quality education programs in juvenile facilities and state and federal prisons; and examples of youth detention facilities in New York, Texas, and Louisiana that violate the rights of youth to education and to be treated with dignity. The report was submitted to the Special Rapporteur, who is currently preparing a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council about prisoner education worldwide to be released in June 2009.

(A Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education is called upon to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report back on the status of the human right to education in countries around the world.)