Its time to stand up for what is right when it comes to our youth who are being sent as fodder to feed the multi-billion dollar private prison system. Far too many public schools are being shut down in counties across the United States of America every year and when we look among the reasons given for these occurrences we rarely follow the information to the individuals who will profit most. We must realize that there is someone on the receiving end of another’s imprisonment, someone in the form of a for-profit private prison company. The top two private prison corporations made $3 billion dollars each in 2010.

Could this be what is incentivizing the mass incarceration of our youth? A decrease in the number of schools in an area has a ripple effect that can contribute to the crippling of economic growth, the weakening of community relationships, and the diminishment of government effectiveness. Chicago, which recently shut down over 50 schools and had 52 shooting incidents in one weekend in 2012, is an example of the interconnectedness between education and crime. The alarming rate of youth violence in America has put the federal government’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention under fire to get involved due to local governments being overwhelmed with death certificates.

So, Now What?

I believe that our children are our future. I believe that they will become brilliant doctors, professors, and scientists that will change the world. There is nothing on God’s green earth that they cannot accomplish when they put their minds to it. We need to help our youth to understand this, believe this and accept this.

One may ask what can be done to circumvent the pipeline from schools to prisons?

This is a great question that I feel compelled to dedicate this week’s segment of the King Kevin Show. I hope to give teachers, students, parents and concerned taxpayers a platform to share their ideas in hopes of finding a solid solution to this growing epidemic.