She relaxed in her seat, hoping the rhythm of the music would ease her tension, but a chain gang appeared up ahead. Chained together in five-man groups, they cleaned the ditch under the afternoon sun. They worked in their groups, picking up the trash thrown from cars flying too fast down the road. They all wore the same black-and-white-striped uniform. She’d seen images like this before, of men, even women, stripped of their identity, nothing more than anonymous blurs working their forced labor. The image was not new to her, especially in North Carolina, a state whose newly appointed prison commissioner believed in deterrence. “If a man is humiliated enough maybe he’ll think a little harder about what he’s done and choose not to do it again,” he was heard saying, a quote taken from the commissioner in Louisiana, who was also known for his hard stance. Following in Louisiana’s footsteps, he’d ordered that these inmates be dressed in old-fashioned striped uniforms and forced them outside to work.

What was new were the shackles. Mira could see the glinting metal wrapped around the men’s ankles. Immediately, the image conjured another—at the school where Mira worked, the administration recommended that at the first sign of trouble in the classroom teachers call the police and let them handle it. She’d never done it, but other teachers had, and typically they’d come and escort the student out of school. Sometimes they were back the next day but often times they were not. Mira never asked where they went.

A few weeks ago, a social studies teacher at her school, fed up with a student not doing the assignments and talking back in class, asked him to leave and go to the principal. The student refused. The teacher, Mr. Billings, a man who should have retired long ago, called the police. This was the story she’d heard, but the viral video a classmate had circulated afterward told the truth of what happened. She’d watched in horror as two policemen took hold of the student, yanked him from his desk, and drop-kicked him to the ground, pulling both his arms behind his back and cuffing him.

Mira recognized the student in the video. Javion. He was the kind of kid who forced himself to be invisible. Last to class, he’d slump down in his seat. Expressionless, no matter what she did or said. Other students at least attempted to laugh at her awkward jokes or feigned enthusiasm when she sarcastically chastised them for not being excited enough over the lesson.