The School-to-Prison Pipeline
Key Terms:
Mass Incarceration - Term coined by David Garland in 2000 to describe the expansion of imprisonment in the U.S. between 1975 to the late 1990s. (But still relevant and happening today!)
School-to-Prison Pipeline - The ACLU defines the school-to-prison pipeline as “a disturbing national trend wherein youth are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal legal systems.”
Zero-Tolerance Policies (In schools) - “Zero tolerance refers to school discipline policies and practices that mandate predetermined consequences, typically severe, punitive and exclusionary (e.g., out of school suspension and expulsion), in response to specific types of student misbehavior—regardless of the context or rationale for the behavior,” as defined by the School Discipline Support Initiative
Criminal Justice System - The system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses, defined by Oxford Languages.
Prison Industrial Complex - The profit-driven relationship between the government, the private companies that build, manage, supply, and service prisons, and related groups (such as prison industry unions and lobbyists) regarded as the cause of increased incarceration rates, especially of poor people and minorities and often for nonviolent crimes, as defined by Merriam Webster.
The United States has a long history of both criminalizing and incarcerating youth of color which ultimately leads to the push out of students in schools and into the prison system. Zero-tolerance policies in schools play a large role in this, too, when students of color misbehave and receive no additional opportunities to improve their behavior or actions, thus being called “zero-tolerance.” When schools utilize this method, they actively participate in the school-to-prison pipeline and participate in the country’s prison industrial complex. Another way that schools actively participate in this is by having a heavy police presence on school grounds. While it may seem extreme, this is the reality of students of color, students with disabilities, English-language learners, and is as specific as targeting male students.
When students are pushed out of their own schools and even encouraged to drop out, they miss a lot of educational opportunities, are criminalized more, and often end up in the criminal justice system, despite being children. When children are criminalized, it is because it stems from a very racist and dated stereotype of people of color being criminals. The reality is that children are children and do not need to be othered, especially by the authority figures in their schools, and this extends to police presence as well. There is no need for campus police specifically for students that “act out” or behave in a way that schools do not like and there are ways that they can improve this behavior if they truly care about their student's well-being such as restorative justice practices.
In a School-to-Prison pipeline article written by the ACLU, they have found that “Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline,” and this is true because the rates of students of color affected by the school-to-prison pipeline compared to their white counterparts are extremely high.
The ACLU has also found that “Many under-resourced schools rely on police rather than teachers and administrators to maintain discipline. Growing numbers of districts employ school resource officers to patrol school hallways, often with little or no training in working with youth. As a result, children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests—the majority of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as disruptive behavior—than they were a generation ago.”
When referring to how costly it is to send youth to prison, the ACLU’s fact sheet on The Juvenile Justice System found that “Both California and Florida currently spend more on corrections than they spend on higher education. Other states are not far behind. [The] Average cost of incarcerating a juvenile for one year is between $35,000 to $64,000.”
The CDRC (Civil Rights Data Collection), in a Data Snapshot of School Discipline done in 2014, has provided statistics pertaining to suspensions of Black students, “Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students. On average, 4.6% of white students are suspended, compared to 16.4% of black students.”
In the same study, the CRDC found that “While black students represent 16% of student enrollment, they represent 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of students
subjected to a school-related arrest… Students with disabilities (served by IDEA) represent a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement, even though they are only 12% of the overall student population.”
In a report made by The Civil Rights Project conducted by Harvard University, “Zero tolerance policies, by their nature, do not provide guidance or instruction. Frequently, because these policies focus directly on harsh forms of punishment, which are inherently unjust, they breed distrust in students toward adults, and nurture an adversarial, confrontational attitude.”
“As a result of Zero Tolerance policies, children are being increasingly subjected to criminal or juvenile delinquency charges.”
As stated, the school-to-prison pipeline is something that heavily affects and actively targets low-income students and youth of color, which is why I decided to choose this issue. I come from a low-income community myself and have witnessed my own peers and friends go through this devastating system as early as 12 years old. It is something that is so scary to see and has resulted in me researching this topic and advocating for the abolition of the pipeline, as well as the prison system. I have seen police in my schools, I have seen the Los Angeles Unified School District have access to weapons, and I have seen my classmates go to juvenile detention centers and be escorted out of school by police; I can only imagine what parents of these children have experienced. It is so heartbreaking to hear that minority students are often profiled and targeted not only by local police but by their own school administrators or teachers that encourage them to drop out and leave their academic careers for something that continuously harms the students and their communities.
I first researched the school-to-prison pipeline in high school (2016 to be specific), when I was taught the meaning of it in an Ethnic Studies class, and participated in a civil rights/social justice club. Since then, I have done extensive research and it has become a topic that I am extremely passionate about and will always talk about when given the opportunity. I believe that zero-tolerance policies do not serve any positive purpose and reinforce the school-to-prison pipeline due to how strict and harsh the policies are towards children. I believe that schools should get rid of campus police if their only intent is to harm their students. I believe that students deserve more chances and that schools need to implement practices that do not punish but reach out to the student to see what they may be dealing with. I believe that students and youth of color in low-income communities deserve equal educational opportunities and funding for youth resources.
Community Members: Jose Ayala, Citlalli Martinez, Isaias Flores
“I think that students deserve to be seen, instead of thrown into a system that treats them unfair and puts them at a disadvantage.” - Jose Ayala
Citlalli Martinez states, “Students are pushed out and create a cycle of school-to-prison, schools need to do better.”
Isaias Flores states, “Children should be allowed to be children, they don’t need to be criminalized. What they need are resources readily available instead of being expelled.”
References
Zero tolerance: School discipline support initiative. Zero Tolerance | School Discipline Support Initiative. (2020). Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://supportiveschooldiscipline.org/zero-tolerance-policy#:~:text=Zero%20tolerance%20refers%20to%20school,or%20rationale%20for%20the%20behavior.
Police presence in schools. American Civil Liberties Union. (2022, February 15). Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/juvenile-justice-school-prison-pipeline/police-presence-schools
“Prison industrial complex.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prison%20industrial%20complex. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.
ACLU fact sheet on the Juvenile Justice System. American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-fact-sheet-juvenile-justice-system
U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Issue Brief Civil Rights Data Collection: Data Snapshot, school discipline1–7 (2014). Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://ocrdata.ed.gov/assets/downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf
The Civil Rights Project. (2000). (rep.). Opportunities Suspended: The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline (pp. 6–7). Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/school-discipline/opportunities-suspended-the-devastating-consequences-of-zero-tolerance-and-school-discipline-policies/crp-opportunities-suspended-zero-tolerance-2000.pdf
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