"For the nation's $20 billion security industry, schools are fertile ground for prison tech"

In the lead up to the book's May 30th publication, Mother Jones has posted an excerpt from Lockdown High, choosing a telling subtitle: "For the nation's $20 billion security industry, schools are fertile ground for prison tech." The excerpt is adapted from a chapter in the book entitled, "Supermax Schoolhouse," and opens,

For millions of children, being scanned and monitored has become as much a part of their daily education as learning to read and write. But while metal detectors and video surveillance have been used for years in public schools, new military and corrections technologies are quietly moving into the classroom with little oversight. Biometric systems with prison applications, such as iris recognition and fingerprint scans, are already being deployed in some high schools to monitor Internet usage. Computer programs that check school visitor identities against sex offender lists are gaining popularity. And radio frequency identification (RFID), developed for military applications and now commonly used by industry, is being promoted for tracking students. The mantra of school safety is being used to justify technology for its own sake-and for the profits of savvy entrepreneurs.

Visit Mother Jones to read the excerpt in full.