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NY: Ithaca school board balks at buying-from-prisons policy. State purchasing policy requirement removed

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

"Board member Eldred Harris said he could not square the concept of benefiting financially from the prison system with a requirement to purchase goods from correctional facilities when those within the prison system are evidence of school districts' failures. 'The causal link I see is that schools fail students of color disproportionately,' and the rate of failure of students of color corresponds with African-Americans' disproportionate incarceration rate, Harris said. Once imprisoned, the state utilizes prisoners' labor for almost no pay, and then forces school districts and municipalities to purchase the products they make, he said." Ithaca school board balks at buying-from-prisons policy State purchasing policy requirement removed Ithaca Journal By Liz Lawyer August 25, 2010 A line in the Ithaca City School District's purchasing policy was causing a moral dilemma for some board of education members -- so they took it out, despite a state law requiring it remain in...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on August 27, 2010 (boomark / email).