we need to do more to stop those traveling, and to deal divisively with those who are already here. i will be making a statement in the house of commons on monday. this will include new legislation that will make it easier to take meme's pass ports away. we also need to take a comprehensive approach. dealing with this threat is not just about new powers, but how we combat extremism in all of its forms. we need to tackle that ideology head on at root before it takes the form of violence and terror. that means challenging the thinking of extremist ideologue, depthfies the extremists in this country, and countering them by empowering the overwhelming majority. that is is why as prime minister, i have driven a new approach to tackling radicalization and extremism in

britain, focusing on all types of extremism. i set this out in my munich is speech in 2011. this includes stopping the funding the organization that fund extremism, banning hate preachings, and all are focused on beating the scourge of extremism. and this task force will continue to meet regularly. britain is an open, tolerant, and free nation. we back every community who want to work hard, make a contribution, and make a life for themselves and their families. all that encourage different cultures to live separate lives. adhering to british values is not an option or choice, it is a duty for those who live in these

islands. and in the end it is only by standing up for these values that we will defeat this extremism, protect our way of life, and keep all of our people safe. thank you. very happy to take some questions from the broadcasters and one or two from the print media. >> reporter: prime minister, do you feel that this increase in the threat level changes the equation at all as regards combat or military response? and a year on from the syria vote, do you reflect -- as some of your own mp's have done, that that vote could have ended up in fact helping the very people who pose this threat. >> first of all the change in the threat level is done

independently of government. i understand and aagree with the assessment that they have made. that there is a greater threat that they face from syria and iraq; that there is a greater problem of returning foreign fighters, and you are dealing not just isil but other al-qaeda-linked franchises in syria and potentially in iraq. so that's the reason for the threat-level change. i think what it should trigger first of all is a -- my first priority is are we safe here at home in the uk? what more can we do? in terms of what we're doing with others to deal with the problem at source, we have been focused on humanitarian aid drops, we have been focused on

intelligence gathering and working with our partners to help with the work we are doing, and the americans have taken the lead on the rather more kinetic action in terms of air strikes against isil. that has been the situation and i think that's the right approach to take. but i will always do what i believe is necessary to keep the british people safe. that's how i make these judgments. in terms of linking back to the syria vote, i wouldn't overanalyze that. it was about a proposal to take limited military action in response to the use of chemical weapons in syria. the house of commons made the determine that it made. there has been since then a widespread dislocation of syria's chemical weapons, and a lot of those have been removed. i wouldn't overanalyze a

connection between that vote, and what we face today which is a terrorist state in the heart of iraq. nate robinson. >> reporter: thank you very much. could you tell us what the higher threat level is likely to mean for people going about their ordinary lives? will they see more police on the streets and public buildings and so on? and can i follow up on his question, you are saying that the threat comes from abroad, from syria and iraq, and yet you appear to be saying there will be no british military action against isil forces in that region. if not, why not? >> first of all what does this threat level mean? let's be absolutely clear about the terms. we were under a threat level of substantial, they have moved that to severe, which is an attack being highly likely.

that is a step back from the most intense of all, which is when an attack is expected imminently. what this means is first of all we should all continue to go about our daily lives in our normal way. britain has faced terrorist threats before and overcome them. the purpose of moving the threat level is that it does trigger a series of actions by the police and indeed by others in other parts of life to make sure they put in place all of the extra security that they can. so you might see some changes in terms of policing, and the numbers of police and things like that, but that is the point of having a set of threat levels, independently judged and announced, so the authorities both in the private and public sectors, know the level of threat that we face. taking your second question, you say this threat comes from iraq

and syria, and of course the threat we face today or part of the threat we face today, a large part, does come from iraq and syria, but my argument is actually we need to go a bit deeper. the threat comes from the poisonous narrative of islamist extremist. wherever there is a broken state, a civil war, grievance, ungoverned space, you see the islamist extremist agenda being pushed further and faster. that's why we have problems in other areas. the source of the problem is the extremism. and that's why i think the right approach is to identify the problem you noise, the poisonous islamic extremist narrative, and take it everywhere, including at home. and that's not just about targeting those that want to do violence, but those who put

forward the extremist narrative, which provides a background for recruiting people into this violence, and that is the approach, very much that we take. now do we need with allies to make sure that isil cannot succeed in iraq and syria? yes, of course, we do. but we should be very clear about the cause of what has brought this about, and one of the principle causes is the ungoverned space in iraq caused by the fact that for too long iraq had a government that was only governing on behalf of one part of the country. so our strategy for combatting isil has to have, as i said, every single one of those functions that i outlined. we should be working with the ku kurds, and we are, we should be helping the americans with the intelligence gathering that they want. we should be working to assure a an iraqi government that can government all of iraq, and we

are. we should deliver aid supplies to all of those desperately need. while we do that, you still have a problem of poisonous islamist extremism, and you see that problem in our country even before that problem came about. dealing with the source of the problem is going to be absolutely key. [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: prime minister we have thrown about the threat of returning foreign fighters for some time, why has it taken all summer to raise the threat level. >> that's a question for the center, and not for me. but i'm very satisfied that they look at this in a rigorous and comprehensive way, and they base their judgments based on all of the intelligence that they say. clearly we have had a problem of isil in iraq, and foreign

fighters traveling from britain to iraq, and indeed we have had the problem of not just isil but other al-qaeda groups in that area, but though view is that has become more serious, and that's why it has lifted from substantial to severe. it's their assessment. it's very important that politicians don't make this assessment. and then we have the responsibility working with all of the agencies, intelligence, security, police, all of the rest of it, how do we make sure we put everything in place to try to keep our country safe. let's take i think we have kurt from the times. >> reporter: is the decision in response to a specific threat?

and is there evidence that any part of the isil organization wants to target the uk. and it has been a difficult couple of days for you, after the events of [ inaudible ] defection yesterday, there is, it would appear great unrest in your party, and smith called on you to step up the gas. do you agree with him? can you reassure your party that you will not be campaigning to stay in the european union. and the particular unrest given yesterday's horrible figures -- >> you are watching al jazeera, and we're looking at the live scenes right now. that's the british prime minister david cameron speaking from downing street. and he was outlining and explaining the decision to raise the uk threat level by the joint terrorism assessment center from substantial to severe.

so that has now been raised to severe. and he was saying the purpose of moving that threat level up is to put into action certain security as well as protection measures and for authorities to rema remain vigilant. and i'm quoting him here, it's a poisonous islamic extremism, and there will be further steps to stop people from traveling to syria and iraq to stop them from fighting with groups like isil. now that the uk terror threat level has been raised to severe. well in other news, nato's secretary general says there is no doubt that russia hasn't sent troops and weapons into ukraine.

but russia's foreign minister says there's no proof. >> reporter: nato's ambassadors met in emergency session to discuss how best to respond. the language was strong. >> despite moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern ukraine. this is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern. >> reporter: on thursday nato produced these satellite photos which it said proved russian artillery are now operating on ukraine soil. >> translator: the government of

ukraine would like to ask parliament to consider the law on abandoning ukraine's non-aligned status and reconsider becoming a member of nato. >> reporter: it was their desire to strengthen ties with the european union that starts this whole crisis. the secretary general hinted that any decision ukraine took would be respected. >> each and every nation has an adherent right to decide it's a on security poll advertise and aligned affiliations. >> reporter: on friday it was the foreign minister's turn, he pored scorn on nato's accusations. >> translator: from the very beginning of this, we have been blamed for everything, so it's not the first time that we hear all sorts of conjecture, and not once have facts been presented

to us. there have been reports of photographs from space showing russian troops, but as it turned out, it was a computer game and the images were taken from there. >> reporter: tightening and widening sanctions on russia is a real possibility. eu leaders will take up that issue on saturday in brussels. rebels fighting in eastern ukraine have agreed to open humanitarian corridors to allow troops to withdraw from the battlefield. >> reporter: it would be difficult to under exaggeration the twitchiness of the soldiers here. in the past hour or so there was an unexplained alert. they went scrambling for their helmets and guns.

it gives you an indication of how on edge the soldiers are here. it is 20 to 30 kilometers to the town which has been occupied by separatists and russian forces for the last couple of days now. and the defensive positions around the town have been strengthened in the last 24 hours. we're hearing that the army has been laying land mines, and we have seen locals come out to help dig defensive trenches around this road that we're on at the edge of the city. the army is in a beleaguered state now. well the number of refugees who fled the civil war in syria has reached 3 million, and that's around 5,000 day. the united nations says it's the biggest humanitarian emergency of our time, and not enough is

being done to help. when fighting began three years ago, few would have predicted would quickly the toll has risen. the number of syrias left the country had crossed the 500,000 mark and that figure doubled just three months later. it only took six months for that number to swell to 2 million. and now a year later, 3 million syrians have crossed the border in search of safety. the bulk are in lebanon and turkey, and the rest have settled in jordan, iraq, and egypt. we'll take you to jordan now which is home to over 600,000 of these refugees, and life is not easy for those that made the long journey. we met some of the newest arrivals at a camp, and sent this report. >> reporter: after being stranded in no man's land between jordan and syria for 11

days, this woman finally arrives to this camp. this is where they start their lives as refugees. they have been handed some basic items, and now they're on their way to see where they are going to live for what could be an extended period of time. she is disappointed when she gets to her home because it doesn't have any flooring. aid agencies are cash strapped and unable to construct cement floors, and refugees are expected to cover the sand with plastic sheeting. she says she is already facing grim challenges. >> translator: at the beginning you have to suffer to adapt to life here. no one can immediately settle into this new reality. first i had to get used to living in this home. then i have to get used to my neighbors. i may not feel comfortable with them. and i'm worried.

>> reporter: this camp could one day become the largest in the world. it can host up to 130,000 people. a lot of effort went into the planning of the camp but it needs more funding to be fully operational. the camp is four months old and the refugees still don't have electricity. the plan was to provide the service in all prefabricated units. but agencies haven't received enough money from international dones or for this. this man came from holmes two months ago. he says it's impossible to live under the desert's searing heat for very long. >> the most important thing is to get electricity and floors. >> reporter: the u.n. says it may have to scale down its services. but the large number of humanitarian disasters around the world isn't helping.

>> with much crisis around the world and very serious ones, including in this region, obviously choices have to be made by donor countries, and we are affected by this. >> reporter: 3 million syrians now displaced outside of their country, is depressing. and the political solution also seems a remroet possibility. well the united nations is l kaing for the unconditional and immediate release of peace keepers being held hostage by syrian rebels. 44 soldiers were captured on thursday. another 75 filipino peace keepers have also been trapped by rebels in that same area. no yemen now where government rivals and their houthi ryals have held

demonstrations. >> reporter: a day of mass gathering across yemen, here government loyalists gather in the streets. it was the focal point of the 2011 prodemocracy movement that toppled the previous president. but now they say they are united against the shiite houthis. >> translator: we're here [ inaudible ] if for whatever reason violence erupted here it would spread across the country. >> reporter: talks have reached nowhere. the stand oif between the rebels and the president has lead to the worst crisis the country has seen since all of the feuding actions agreed on the transition to democracy two years ago. there doesn't seem to be any indication that the government and the houthis are willing to

reach a compromise. for the time being they are calling on their own people to take to the streets on a daily basis. another defiant crowd on the other side of the city. the houthis dismiss accusations they are plotting to seize power. >> translator: we took to the treats to denounce corruption. we are very poor because of wide-spread krcorruption. >> reporter: inspired by their leader's fiery speeching the rebels insist this is a fight for democracy. the man who led their friday prayers is a sunni cleric, a tackful move to discredit those who say the houthis are more driven by a sectarian agenda. the first case of ebola has been confirmed in senegal. scientists say the virus is

mutating quickly, which could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines now being developed. >> reporter: a new temporary laboratory in sierra leon's capitol, free town. one of just two other labs in the country equipped to test for ebola was closed this week after a member of staff caught the virus. >> in the past if you would like to test ebola, you would have to send the specimens overseas, the test results would be issued only after a few days, or sometimes even after a week or longer. here we can issue the results since -- you know, when we receive the specimens. we can issue the results within three to five hours. in guinea, u.n. agency, unicef has donated motorbikes to

the government. it says the outbreak has already changed the lives of thousands of children. >> translator: wp an average of five children orphaned with each deceased parent due to ebola, you can imagine that there are thousands of children who have made vulnerable by this epidemic. >> reporter: clinical trials in the u.s. are likely to start next week in the uk next month. vaccine development usually takes up to ten years. galaxosmithkline says it hopes to finish the testing by the end of 2015. both elements of the test vaccine, they have been shown to be safe in humans. but a study just published suggests the ebola virus in west africa is mutating fast, and

this could blunt the effectiveness of the vaccines. >> from long experience with developing vaccines, you have to be careful when you first put it into humans to make sure above all that is it safe; that there are no unexpected adverse reactions, and that's why you go in very slowly with very few people and follow them carefully. >> reporter: with the number of new cases last week at their highest so far, the w.h.o. has warned that it could take months, even years to bring the outbreak under control. four of the six men accused of trying to kill a former rwandan military general have been found guilty, but two other accused have been acquitted. the attack on a close associate of the rwandan president happened in 2010. he accused the men of working for the rwandan government.

the president has always denied any involvement in the attack. in columbia, former employees of general motors have sewn their mouths shut to protest being fired for work-related injuries. millions of argentinians have been on 24 hour strike and protests against unemployment and inflation. it is the next protest this year, and comes just a month after argentina defaulted on its international debts. the indian economy has grown close to 6% from april to june. but some observers say indian's new government still has a lot to do. >> reporter: we're seeing better than expected quarterly figures for the indian economy here. however, observers say it would be premature to attribute much of the signs of the upturn on the work of the government which

came into power in may. they are saying we have yet to see the impact of the key economic reforms and initiatives this new government has promised, keeping in mind they are still shy of 100 days in office. but observers say the optimism and enthursdayal. r -- enthusiasm being injected by the new government is helpful. but in terms of the real impact that's yet to be seen. often companies often go on the road to perform in different places, but singers in canada are taking a different root to finding a broader audience. daniel lack explains. >> reporter: on tour with the bicycle opera company. they carry almost everything they need for a show in bike

trailers or backpacks. they fix their own cycles, and put their lungs to work pedalling instead of singing. >> we have been training our muscles to get a precise sound and effect and of course volume. ♪ >> reporter: this is the third season that bicycles have brought opera to small towns and cities in this part of canada. usually singers take july and august off or go abroad to hone its skills. this group spends its time now in the saddle. >> it was great. we had almost perfect weather the whole time and just hanging out with people. >> there are no concert halls, or proper stages. this version of opera arrives on a bike and sets up in a

gymnasium or country church. making a highly specialized fine art available to anyone in the neighborhood. >> i think we break down the barriers already just even by the concept of the project, bicycle and opera. >> reporter: material is modern and bid a can composers, each segment is short and lively. even the lyrics are subtitled and beamed from a projection powered by a bicycle generator that the audience help run. >> getting out and taking it to the people and threeing a gimmick behind it is pretty smart. >> reporter: it has help spread opera just that much wider in this part of the country. soon the performers hope to go across canada and broaden their

audience even further. it's a long ride, but they seem to have the pedal power to keep going. just a reminder, you can always keep up to date with all of the news on our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ >> we're here at the darrington unit, which is a maximum security prison on the outskirts of texas. >> jimarquez holland is 20 years old. he's been imprisoned here for three years. >> to me, i feel like what i was doing was petty. petty crimes - i never thought in a million years that i would be 17 and in prison. never thought. whenever the judges said, we send you to prison, i couldn't

even believe it. >> his criminal record began when he was in just sixth grade. police officers in his school gave him tickets for misbehavior, including smoking cigarettes. >> just hanging out with the wrong people. just not thinking with my head when you're young. >> he's here because of a burglary charge. when he was sentenced, the judge factored in his juvenile record, which included his misbehavior in school. >> instead of dealing with troubled students in traditional ways like counseling and detention, more schools are enforcing zero tolerance policies - and depending on law enforcement to carry them out. >> it's known as the school to prison pipeline. >> we've taken the same failed policies that have led to mass incarceration, and we're using them in schools throughout the country.

>> in this episode of fault lines, we travel to texas - one of the top states in funneling students from schools to jails. >> for many students, the journey to prison can begin at the start of the school day. in texas, if you're late to school three times, that's considered an unexcused absence. under state law, a student with ten unexcused absences faces fines up to 500 dollars, and a warrant to show up to truancy court. if the student can't pay the fine by the time they turn 17, they can face time in prison.

jennifer torres is in her last year of high school. she owes more than 7,000 dollars in fines for truancy. she said was late to sool, in part, because she worked nights as a janitor to help support her family. >> the other night i didn't leave work till like 1. >> so you get home and you're in bed by wt, 2? >> i still have to shower, yeah. >> 2? yeah. and then what time are you supposed to be at school in the morning? >> well, i wake up at 5 just to get ready and stuff. >> 5? >> yeah, so it's really not that much sleep. >> can you walk me through how many classes that you've missed, or how many absences that you have? >> a little over a hundred. but it was in the last 4 years. >> over a hundred over four years? >> yeah, they actually came to school, they pulled me out of class and they got me and they told me to come with them and i was like, i was surprised. because i didn't know about this. they told me they had 2 warrants

out for me and i was like, for what? and they said truancy. and they kind of took me to jail for a while. >> i mean if you're trying to get somebody to go to school, why take them out of school. why put them in jail to miss more school, you know? i think it's pointless. >> jennifer's family can't afford to pay the fine, so she is doing community service to discharge the debt. if she doesn't, she may have to spend the summer in jail. >> we try to work hard for pay bills, house, pay taxes, and extra 7,000 dollars is crazy. statisticshow that zero tolerance polices target the most disadvantaged youth. black students are more than three times as likely to be suspended or expelled as their

white peers. hispanics and those with disabilities also face harsher punishments. students routinely get police-issued misdemeanors for things that used to mean a trip to the principal's office >> we're seeing an over-reaction to childish behavior. we're seeing racial profiling in our schools, in our hallways, of young people of color who are seen to be threats, so all of these kinds of over reactions push us to have these policies and practices in schools, that lead to pushing young people out, pushing them into the juvenile justice system, and into the criminal justice system. >> many of the criminal citations are handed out for minor infractions, like dress code violations. these cases happen all over the

country, and often the most absurd ones make the news. >> small children cited for throwing paper airplanes flipping the teacher off criminal citations for cussing in class 14-year old girl charged with disorderly conduct for repeatedly text messaging during class. small paring knife in lunch box gets north carolina student suspended for the rest of her senior year. one teenage student arrested for pouring milk on his girlfriend more than a thousand tickets were issued to primary school children over the past six years in texas several districts ticketed a six year old at least once. >> critics say resorting so quickly to the criminal justice system alienates students from the school system, makes them more likely to drop out and end up in prison. >> we're in north houston right now. we're just going to meet a young man. theo is the guy's name and he's

had all sorts of run-ins with the justice system starting in school. >> theo holmes is 19 years old. he served 3 years in a juvenile facility, mostly because of tickets he received from cops at his school. >> i think my first ticket was minor possession of tobacco, i believe. after that ticket i was like man, what you all going to do to me, ticket was $300 i ain't going to do community service. 14, 15, years old, you know what i'm saying? what you going to do to me? yall going to take me downtown or take me home? >> he says his mother kicked him out of the house at the age of 12. and his father was not in his life. the punishments at school didn't help theo get back on track. he ended up in juvenile detention. now, when he's ready to get his life together, his juvenile record stands in his way.

>> so can you tell me how having the probation and the record is affecting you know? >> it's affecting me a whole bunch because it's like i can't get no job. you know what i want to do, i want to be in international business, but at the same time i can't get nobody to even hear me talk or hear my story. they don't want to hear me out. now they looking at me like damn you a hoodlum. i can't hire you. >> so when you go back and you think about where it all started, is it fair to say that it did start with the infractions in school that you got ticketed for? >> man, it been started. it been started. in texas, if you a minority in the state of texas ain't nothing for you. or you come from poverty you got no one that, black, white brown, pink blue, ain't nothing for you. you know what i mean. it wouldn't nothing to help us prepare for the real world. it helped us prepare for jail

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>> with every horrific school shooting in the u.s., there are calls for more police officers in schools. but more police means students are more likely to be written up for misbehavior...and eventually end up in prison. the federal government provides tens of millions of dollars a year to fund these officers in schools across the country. >> every time we have a school shooting ,we actually realize that there was a young person in need and they weren't in need of a police officer. they were in need of an adult who could have talked to them, who could have counseled them, who could have deferred them to resources that they may have needed that weren't available in the school. >> across texas, police officers like javier alvarez, spend their days patrolling school campuses. in 2013, they wrote over 100,000

misdemeanor tickets. >> how do you make the distinction between a group of kids sitting around a vehicle harmlessly hanging out and something where you're actually going to roll up and talk to them a bit? >> these kids right here they saw us, they saw me turn away and i saw them when we turned into this alleyway. it was obvious they were not trying to hide something or start walking away. it's the ones that when they see you they turn around and start fiddling with their fingers. those are the ones you want to talk to >> what do you think of the school to prison pipeline? is that reflected in your experience? >> what's being said that kids that get in trouble with police in school are more likely to go to prison later, well how can that be? if you're destined for a life of crime, then that's in your system. that's in your blood. a lot of this stuff comes from the families.

>> chief of police victor araiza is in charge of security at over 100 facilities in the el paso school district. he says teachers and administrators rely too much on police to solve their problems. >> children that can be problematic on a campus, the objective sometimes from faculty and staff is to have them removed, have them disciplined, have them sent to alternative schools. and the mechanism, the tool to accomplish that, is a police report, or some type of a document that says this student is so unruly that he can no longer be kept at this campus and he needs to be cited, he needs to be charged with a criminal offense and officer, you need to do that and help me. >> we tried to talk to dozens of teachers in texas, but only one agreed to speak with us: anna sifford - who has taught high school social studies for seven years. >> i see that teachers have neglected to figure out a way to handle a lot of problems on their own that they used to.

things that were up to the teacher before are now a phone call away. >> how many of your peers are just picking up the phone and calling the school resource officer? >> i'd say the majority of teachers are doing that. definitely 75% out of all of us, if i just want to make a rough guess doing that, because they go in with a set lesson plan and when the kid doesn't want to do it , what do i do i get him out of my classroom. >> one thing we sort of heard as a criticism is that well, they are cops, you put one in a school they are going to start policing and all of a sudden they will start ticketing things, enforcing laws in a way that wouldn't normally happen and so you have a higher likelihood that the young people in school will be criminalized. is that something that you've seen borne out? >> there are sros that i've heard from colleagues of mine that write them every five minutes. you know, if there's a problem, write a ticket, problem, write a ticket. and that's where the kid ends up in court, and the tickets are being written to families that are not going to be able to

afford them to pay them. that's why the kid ends serving the time. >> getting troubled students out of the classroom often means sending them to what's euphemistically called an "alternative school." at lincoln middle school, it's just a group of classrooms that are segregated from the rest of the school. >> alternative is here from morning until the afternoon when they leave. >> so they don't change classrooms? >> they don't change classrooms. they have one teacher. every middle school has an alternative... >> so out of a thousand students here, there's never more than say... >> right now we have about 12... >> what's with the most wanted and the mug shots? >> funny you may have to mention that. two of those kids used to be here in alternative. it's to let these kids know that hey, you know. this kid was always getting into trouble. >> critics say alternative schools can actually backfire because they're grouping together troubled students,

labeling them as "bad" and isolating them from their peers. students can also fall back academically because the lessons aren't as rigorous. >> this is just a mild form of incarceration and we let those kids know that. >> school districts have to make choices. they have limited resources and unfortunately we see too many school districts rushing to get a police officer with a gun and a badge instead of a counsellor.

>> on techknow... >> so, this is the smart home... >> saving the environment >> the start point for energy efficiency, is to work with the sun... >> saving you money >> we harvest a lot of free energy >> and so we're completely off grid here >> how many of the appliances were almost a little too smart for us? >> techknow every saturday, go where science, meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've ever done, even though i can't see. >>techknow >> we're here in the vortex... only on al jazeera america >> now available, the new al jazeea america

mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now >> as civil rights and education activists sounded alarm bells about the school to prison pipeline, the federal government eventually took notice.

>> in january, the obama administration released new guidelines intended to curtail overly zealous discipline policies in schools across the country. >> the report found that minority students were far more likely to face disciplinary action or arrest. it also cited schools for widespread use of out-of-school suspensions, 95 percent of them for nonviolent offenses like disrespect and tardiness. >> a routine school discipline infraction should land a student in the principal's office, i think, at worst, not in a police precinct. the guidelines followed a study of almost 1 million texas which found that students who'd been suspended were more likely to fail academically, drop out of school and face arrest. this facility in houston texas is called a rehabilitation center. but in reality, it's a prison

for boys under the age of 17. this sixteen year old got caught with marijuana starting when he was 13 years old; he also got in trouble for truancy. under state law, we couldn't film his face. he's 2 months into a 3 month term. >> do you feel as though you've changed? >> yes, sir. >> how about now when you get out. what are you going to look to do? >> he's unlikely to get into the armed forces with a juvenile record.

so for many kids with behavior problems, it's another way that early criminal records set them up for lost opportunities. >> we were just outside at the basketball court. and then we came inside because all the guards came running. apparently there's some sort of fight inside this juvenile facility. still not sure what's going on but you get the sense that things do happen, young people do act out. >> young people who are sentenced to juvenile facilities are 37 times more likely to be arrested again as adults. often, the additional charges and longer sentences begin here, for infractions like fighting with other inmates. i'm wab. >> cr is in for possession of marijuana. his father is has been detained

for immigration violations, and his family is struggling with losing that support. >> what happened to your eye? >> okay.. >> yeah. >> how long does a fight like that happen for before it's broken up? >> and then the guards are right there? >> yeah >> so that fight you got into this week, is that going to make it harder for you to go home? >> how do you feel about that? like, is that a big deal to you? >> studies show that grouping delinquent youth together actually has a negative impact on their behavior.

facing pressure, texas tried to cut down on the number of students being ticketed in schools for disruptive behavior. last year, the legislature passed a law that barred police officers from giving misdemeanor citations to students for disrupting class or acting up on the bus. this truancy court in the capital of austin is also trying to shift away from the criminalization of juvenile behavior. >> the approach here is more about making sure that there's a positive result. let's go check it out. >> we talk about school to prison pipeline. we don't want students to become accustomed to going to court, to having a case, to having a warrant out there for your arrest, even though it's a class

c misdemeanor. it desensitizes those folk. i purposefully don't want to feed into that. >> alright next case we have here is jordan hearn. >> rather than fine her or recommend a stiffer penalty, judge williams has decided to send this student's truancy case back to her middle school: where she will be tried by a jury of her peers. >> so the name is jordan. cause is tru... i don't know how to spell truancy. i'm going to put "not at school." >> it's a kind of intervention that hopes to help young people avoid a more serious involvement with the criminal justice system. offenders who go through a youth court are half as likely to commit another infraction as those who go to a formal court

for the same crime. despite these efforts to cut down on the number of youths with criminal records, for many people, it's too late. >> we've come here to the darrington unit on the outskirts of houston. this is where the school to prison pipeline terminates, at maximum security facilities like this one. >> we're getting buzzed up to go to the classrooms right now. >> we were invited to observe a

class which focuses on life skills, like anger management. >> wh a show of hands, how many have actually been suspended from public education - from school? elementary, middle school, high school that you got suspended from schoo >> every time i messed up i'd either get kicked out or put in some kind of disciplinary that didn't make me want to go back... instead of just sitting down and working wi me. >> when i was in alternative school, it was just a bunch of gang members you know just gang-banging or doing drugs. it really led me for the penitentiary. >> what was it about the environment there that you feel prepared you for the pen? >> it was the same as the penitentiary. >> how so? >> gang banging, people doing their time the way they want to. we weren't learning anything or whatever. same thing. >> donald matthews is 35 years old.

he wasrrested for arson in 2008, but he said his problems began when he was still in school. >> i had an attitude - i'm add, i can't sit down too long. not paying attention in school, go to school when i want to. different things of that nature, just being rebellious. >> this is what my everyday life is, man. got my bunk. that's where i sleep at. >> like many of the men here, he says never received a real education or one-on-one attention until he came to prison. >> what was the environment like when you went to the alternative school? >> to me it was just prepping individuals just for- it was like just an isolated place, off to where you can be around people of your kind.

you know, that we can relate to each other. i'm a disobedient child, you're a disobedient child, you do what you want to do, i do what i want to do, so we get together and we're going to be even worse. it didn't help me in no kind of way. the one i went to, there wasn't no one trying to actually teach. all they were doing is just doing something with you at that point in time because you're a kid, they can't just kick you out of school or get rid of you. that's for bad kids, like a babysitter or something. >> do feel like anything that happened there helped you avoid ending up where you did? >> no, no. i think with me going there, i think that helped me end up where i am now.

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>> hello, and welcome to the news hour, live from our headquarters in delhi with your top stories around the world. ukraine said it wants to join nato as a new front opens with pro russian separate i was in done effect. the number of syrian refugees hits 3 million. the u.n. is calling it the biggest humanitarian emergency of our time. britain raises it's terrorist threats t