Building Bridges, Not Bars: Dismantling the School-To-Prison Pipeline

Rehabilitative measures have long been abandoned in favor of lengthy, frequently lifelong prison sentences in American criminal justice systems. The modern criminal justice system's punitive and aggressive tools and methods have crept into schools during the past ten years in an effort to pull kids out of the mainstream of education and direct them down the School-To-Prison pipeline. It’s time to shift the focus away from incarceration and towards retribution for youths.

It's important to know exactly what the School-To-Prison pipeline is. It refers to ‘education’ and ‘public safety’ policies that try to integrate and encourage as much police presence in schools as possible. This means schools utilize zero-tolerance disciplinary policies that involve law enforcement in cases of minor misbehavior, ultimately resulting in students being funneled into the criminal justice system through mass arrests and referrals to juvenile detention. In 2010 alone 3 million children were suspended. It’s important to note that historical inequalities such as segregated education,disabilities, and racial disparities in law enforcement all feed the pipeline. About 1 in 4 black children with disabilities were suspended at least once, versus 1 in 11 white students with disabilities. It’s no surprise that race and ability plays into the pipeline. The attitudes the public and many teachers had toward young African American boys, but also Latino boys and Black and brown girls, are rooted in racist stereotypes and target them as being predators, criminals, or bad people who must be disciplined and controlled and, on the basis of any small misbehavior, removed from our schools.The children who are taken from school end up in far worse places such as suspension centers, alternative schools, and juvenile prison—all places where meaningful education and help cannot be accessed and children with histories of violence or bad behavior can influence each other.

A recent study discovered that, on average, about 32% of young individuals in juvenile corrections had previously been identified as having special learning needs, despite only around 8.6% of children in public schools being identified with learning disabilities. In some states such as Florida and Maine numbers can reach up to 60% of students with disabilities that can affect their learning. Prosecuting these children means their chances of reintegrating back into society are incredibly difficult due to the lack of education and help provided during their time in jail. Society essentially shoots themselves in the foot by encouraging this. Not only do they lose out on potential talent hidden in the students, the educational institutions also allocate significant resources, surpassing the amount required to adequately fund public education, to address the challenges that these students are likely to present as adults in the future. More specifically, young African-Americans have begun to feel the education system shift away from learning and towards targeted incarceration. Studies show that African-American students are far more likely than their white peers to be suspended, expelled, or arrested for the same kind of conduct at school. These racist stereotypes paired with the zero-tolerance policies have made learning extremely difficult for students of color. Not only is their education hindered, so is their reputation. Many arrests are due to the long standing stereotype of African-Americans being ‘predatory’ or ‘dangerous’. For example, in 2000, African Americans represented only 17% of public school enrollment nationwide, but accounted for 34% of suspensions. The pipeline has already put the education of its minority students at risk, with a mere 38% of African-American males graduating on time in Florida. It's quite clear that the School-To-Prison pipeline is just another way to create more obstacles that intend to deprive African-Americans of basic education and freedom.

Even though the school-to-prison pipeline seems like a lost cause, there are already people taking action. Such as The New York City Department of Education’s “Impact Schools” program which is among the most aggressive School-to-Prison Pipeline policies in the country. As well as that, many have resorted to legal actions, including, when federal civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against Meridian, Mississippi, and other defendants for operating a School-To-Prison pipeline. However, preventing a school from falling down the pipeline also lies in the classrooms themselves. To help disabled and impoverished students we can implement programs and counseling with the money that would otherwise be used to push these children into prison. Keeping disruptive students can be tough for educators under the pressure to meet accountability measures in the classroom, but teachers have the special ability that can help divert kids from the pipeline. Teachers know their students best, meaning if they use more responsive rather than punitive approaches to the way they teach the students are far more likely to complete their education. Losing precious years of their lives is a fate that no student should face and by implementing legal actions, and positive rehabilitation in the education system it is possible to stop the plague of injustice that students face.