School/Prison Metaphor takes on New Meaning

The Chicago Public Schools will have to identify students considered at risk for committing future crimes and set up a program to give them tours of a state prison in an attempt to discourage bad behavior under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

This quote by a representative who sponsored the bill is very strange:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), a House sponsor of the legislation, said the new law reminded her of the time she visited the Cook County Jail as part of a social studies class when she attended Calumet High School in the 1950s. She said her teacher, who was white, pointed out an African-American female prisoner and suggested she looked like Davis.

"I felt totally humiliated," recalled Davis, who is black. "However, I must say to you I would never want to be housed in the small, cramped, dark corner of a jail cell."

In other words, being humiliated and compared to a black female prisoner was the only thing that kept Davis from a life of crime and led to her successful political career. Oops, I forgot they are one and the same.