A Continuos School-to-Prison Pipeline
While many
people might not be familiar with the phrase, School-to-Prison Pipeline,
thousands of students, overwhelmingly Latinos, African-Americans, and students
with disabilities, have been the targets of such practice. The school-to-prison
pipeline was coined to represent the educational system that continues to push
students out of the school setting and into the criminal justice system.
Policies such
as Zero tolerance and No Child Left Behind have led to an increase in the criminalization
of youth. Originally, the Zero tolerance policy was implemented during the
1980’s in low-income neighborhoods during the crack-cocaine epidemic, however
this has been tweaked to deal with any minor offenses or misbehavior that a
student might act upon. These could range from the way a student dresses, to
the way they speak to a teacher, and even bringing scissors to class, which I
find to be extremely absurd. In regards to the No Child Left Behind policy, standardized testing has
pressured schools into kicking out students who do not perform well, negatively
affecting the future of the student, and prioritizing the well-being of the
school and not that of the student.
Teachers who
have misused the Zero tolerance policy to suspend and expel students for such
minor or no misbehavior at all have crushed the dreams of many students who
wish to go back to school. Once students are expelled and/or suspended, which
are “often left unsupervised” for the time being, students either become less
interested in education or simply find it impossible to go back. Students who are expelled from a school usually cannot join another school in
the same district (which are usually closest to home) and therefore result in
an increase in the drop out rates. Overall, students are pushed out from the
system and into another (left with no guidance or support from counselors) and unfortunately
some dropping out and/or incarcerated.
In addition,
budget cuts that have resulted in a reduction of staff members that provide a
support system for the student (such as counselors, social workers, and
physiologists) have also paved a pathway for hopeless students getting into
drugs, street life, gang affiliation, dropping out, and incarceration in
prisons and juvenile halls. Since 1984 to 2009 there has been a 700% increase
in California’s prison population and a dramatic increase of suspension rates from 1.7 million in 1974 to 3.1 million in 2000. Research has also confirmed that gang alliance increases by 88% once involved
in a juvenile hall. Crime also increases once you enter the criminal justice
system.
When we take a
look at the educational system and its current mode of operation we can see how
school disciplinary policies have led to a system that perpetuates and
contributes to a consistent flow of criminalized youth into the criminal
justice system. However, when we focus on who are the individuals being
targeted, it becomes an issue of discrimination.
In an
info-graphic about the school-to-prison pipeline, the percentages highlight the racial disparity between
blacks and whites. It reveals that blacks are three times more likely to be
suspended form school, but even more shocking is that even when 16% of public
school enrollments are black students (a very some fraction compared to that of
51% of whites), blacks are 11% more likely in receiving multiple suspensions.
How could this be?
I personally
do not know why a system would continue policies that have revealed shocking
rates of criminalization, drop outs, suspensions/expulsions (all which have led
to a decrease in education within the population), nor am I sure how I would effectively
target this issue of criminalization and discrimination. However one thing I do have in mind is that the amount of
money jails get per person can be contributing to its perpetuation. The
criminal justice system has been making profit through
"contracts exchanged between private prison companies and state and local governments that either guarantee prison occupancy rates (essentially creating inmate lockup quotas) or force taxpayers to pay for empty beds if the prison population decreases due to lower crime rates or other factors (essentially creating low-crime taxes)".Therefore, efforts for rehabilitation are low and those of criminalization are high.
I am not
aware of any contracts between schools and prisons, but there could be some
correlation between these two systems. However if the education system is
actually concerned about the well being of the students and not the reputation
of the school, then as Chief Earl has said:
"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunities of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available on equal terms.”
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I think your suggestion that the increasing youth incarceration rates might have a correlation with the private prison industries, especially because crime rates have decreased, as you mentioned. A lot of people who are far removed from the problem are quick to dub these adolescents as delinquents who deserve and even require such harsh punishments. What the average taxpayer might be interested to know is that the cost of keeping someone in prison is several times the cost of keeping this person in school. I think your argument would be even more effective if you looked at that.
ReplyDeleteAlso what do you think the role of the teacher is in this pipeline? Obviously the administrators and policymakers have sort of established these policies but do you think that they have a responsibility here as well? If you have not already seen it, I think you would really like the movie Freedom Writers, which is based on a book, and demonstrates how just one person, Erin Gruwell, went above and beyond her role as a teacher and impacted the lives of her students who were in a similar school-to-prison pipeline. It is based on a true story, in LA, actually but is a little older now, though still very applicable. Thank you for posting about this and bringing it to the attention of the class.
Thank you for your comment! I actually have not seen the movie, but I will make sure to do so! That's actually a very good question. I think teachers play a vital role in this pipeline because, as I mentioned before, they are the ones sending kids off to the deans office and misusing their power to expel and suspend students. I think teachers need to realize that this prison to school pipeline has been perpetuated through the process of expulsion and suspension for many students, in addition to so many other things.
DeleteI think that as teacher they must be trained to recognize behavior that is not simply misconduct, but probably trauma. They should get the adequate training to differentiate the two and send the student to the correct place, such as counseling (where they can receive professional help to cope with any problems they might need) or actually receive some form of discipling (one that does not require detention, but something more like attending tutoring). I also think that they need to go in with the mindset that students, no matter their socio-economic status, deserve the same education as others. I believe you had mentioned how teachers that enter with a negative mindset simply end up giving up before even starting, and that is the perfect example of what a teacher should not do. A teacher should enter with the mentality that the students are ready to learn, no matter the status of the school of students, because if they believe the school and the students are not good and that it's consider a "bad" school, that might just influence their way of teaching in comparison to teaching a class at the number 1 high school in the city.
This is a really interesting post-- I think you could do a follow up on where exactly this issue stems from and kind of investigate the cause of this situation. You touched on the idea that this effects african american and latino students more than white students--is that a potential cause of the pipeline? Is their a kind of racially charged mindset among school officials which negatively impacts some students more than others? Looking at this could allow you to easily transition to a discussion about the officials themselves, and whether the issues stem from them rather than the education system as a whole. You could also look into the various pipelines that the education system tends to create- school to prison, to college, to life, to career, and how that effects our society.
ReplyDeleteThe truth of the matter is that there are some cycles contrary to what many believe exist and are in fact almost impossible to break. One of which is the one where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The other is the school to prison pipeline. Certain kids don’t learn the same way as others; I mean I know that to be true especially because I am one of those kids. The generic classroom system of teaching places a great deal of emphasis on kids consuming a great deal of information and spitting that information back out in the form of homework or tests. Why is that the “acceptable” form of teaching and learning? I mean who even established that as the norm? I’ll tell you who. The same people who are getting richer and richer day by day. Those in power establish the norms for attaining knowledge and those who lack it and learn outside the norms that are established well, they’re the ones who end up in prison because they’re too violent, too disruptive, too whatever. At the same time, I want to make the point for a system of learning where we aren’t all in the same schools being taught the same way. I’m not saying we need to have different districts and based on how we learn we’re in different districts but to ask an elephant, a lion, a monkey, and an ant to climb up the same tree just doesn’t seem right.
ReplyDeleteHello Sahar, I think you bring a very interesting point. We don't all have the same style of learning, and that really makes it hard for students who can not learn that certain way. I'm not sure if that could be a reason for being disruptive in a class, but I think this can fall into the No Child Left Behind policy that I talked about. As i mentioned, many students are pushed out of the educational system because of their low performance in standardized testing, which can be a factor that may lead students to becoming part of the street life, jointing gangs, and committing crimes.
DeleteI am curious to how exactly these styles of learning can fit into the present day educational system more effectively, instead of one taking over the system. You mentioned it would not be something as extreme as having different districts, but then what would you recommend?
This is a great post Wendy, and I am glad you wrote about the school to prison pipeline. And it is critical to note that this is a systemic problem that is not just about increasing the number of non-profits to help students out. This pipeline is about how students are criminalized further and then tracked. And so, sometimes, regardless of the amount of attention placed on the "behavioral" problems of students, it's actually not that students are behaving badly but that they are being criminalized and discriminated against. This is more critical to note than just having a 501-C to come in and "help" students out.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post Wendy, and I am glad you wrote about the school to prison pipeline. And it is critical to note that this is a systemic problem that is not just about increasing the number of non-profits to help students out. This pipeline is about how students are criminalized further and then tracked. And so, sometimes, regardless of the amount of attention placed on the "behavioral" problems of students, it's actually not that students are behaving badly but that they are being criminalized and discriminated against. This is more critical to note than just having a 501-C to come in and "help" students out.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I agree that an unreasonably high number of students of color are being penalized too ruthlessly or kicked out of school for poor behavior that in the past would have only sent them to the principal's office. This type of action leads to a repetition that unfavorably hurts academic success in the short-term and lifelong success later on. Suspended students lose learning time in the classroom, which puts them at jeopardy of falling behind on studies, failing tests, dropping out of school, and then ending up in the criminal justice system. The school-to-prison pipeline is really a classroom-to-prison pipeline. A student’s course to a criminalized life often begins with a curriculum that disparages children’s lives and that does not center on things that matter to students.
ReplyDelete