School To Prison Pipeline Theory Essay

• This article examines the effects of enforcement polices in schools dealing with troubled youth. • Racial disparities in regards to discipline of students in schools. • Examines schools in different states • Disuses the collaboration between schools and law enforcement • Finds that there are detrimental effects of the school to prison pipeline • Explains the correlation between stringent discipline, or zero tolerance policies and juvenile delinquency

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a documented tragedy of a complex, failed system of justice. There are many efforts to reduce incarceration after a person has interacted with the criminal justice system, but by then it may be too late. The causes of the school-to-prison pipeline and the attempts to address it will be discusses in depth. This paper proposes that a preemptive, creative, and collaborative approach will be more effective and realistic in reducing incarceration. A solution that incorporates existing resources, both in public educational institutions, as well as the private business sector will plug the school-to-prison pipeline by giving educational career opportunities to those at risk.

India Geronimo provides an essay that is an analysis of the school-to-prison pipeline and the institutional incentives that contribute to this, with the majority of statistics being derived from the United States education and prison systems. This is more of an examination of the structural causes to the school-to-prison pipeline as well. Those that are poor and minorities are victims to this trend of being scoped out from being filtered out from the education system and lured into the criminal justice system. Geronimo mentions three types of institutional entrenchment, being at the inter-institutional, intra-institutional, and interpersonal levels, explaining that they are related to the systemic marginalization of minority students. After

I agree with the concept that schools should provide and nurturing and structured environment for students. However, the zero-tolerance policies implemented in the school system tend to channel African-American students into the school-to-prison-pipeline. The girls that are viewed as “ghetto” and “ignorant” are disgraced with each office referral and suspension. To find solutions to this problem the educational system has to recognize there is a problem. The suspension rate of African-American girls is ignored because we have assumed they don’t face the same challenges as boys. When we look at out at risk youth, it should be from the standpoint of finding resources to correct the problem regardless of their gender. The stakeholders that

The pipeline begins within individual schools/districts with 2 main things: 1. Harsher Punishments for smaller infractions, a.k.a. ‘Zero tolerance’ policies and 2. Increasing criminalization of schools. “Increasingly, schools are cracking down on small offenses, such as cutting class or being disrespectful. This is supposed to discourage more serious infractions, like drug or weapons possession, but what constitutes disobedience or disrespect can be very subjective.” (“School to Prison Pipeline: How”) These harsh punishments for students cause them to miss out on imperative class time, causing them to fall behind in schools. “By design, exclusionary discipline strategies remove students from the classroom...As a result, these students receive fewer opportunities than their peers to obtain necessary classroom instruction, which increases their risk for academic failure...students with lower academic skills are more likely to engage in disruptive and defiant behaviors to avoid academically demanding tasks, and these outbursts result in the receipt of exclusionary discipline sanctions” (Marchbanks et al. 6) Many may argue that suspensions are beneficial because they prevent students from acting out in that way again, however “...there's broad recognition that suspensions and expulsions do very little on their own to address the underlying issues that cause most students to misbehave” (Cohen 85). Once a student is punished, they often continue to engage in such behaviors, or are just stereotyped as misbehaving, and thus they are punished more. "...by criminalizing routine disciplinary problems, they have damaged the lives of many children by making them more likely to drop out and entangling them, sometimes permanently, in the criminal justice system" (“New York City’s”) Along with harsher punishments, schools are becoming increasingly

In conclusion, some of the solutions included in this paper to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline are to create non-punitive approaches, minimize investment in costly correctional systems to direct funds to under-resourced schools to create programs that would increase educational attainments. Programs such as Reconnecting Youth, intend to help students who face aggression, substance abuse and depression get through school and increase their educational performance. Further solutions included in this paper are: to restore discipline responsibilities to educators, reduce the use of police officers in schools and mandate alternatives to harsh discipline. The alternatives to harsh discipline include non-punitive approaches, which refers

The School to prison pipeline is a thing that affects black children and children with disabilities. The pipeline is a trend that leads children into the criminal justice system instead of college graduation. It grains children for prison, instead of grooming them to enter the workforce. In this paper I will explain 3 things, (African American students being affected,How it affects children underaged, and how children with disabilities are being affected too.) African American students are being affected in the School to Prison Pipeline because on one big reason on who they are.

The school-to-prison pipeline is a devastating part of reality for all too many students. The pipeline in definition is simply a term representing the tendency for certain students to easily end up in prison during or shortly after schooling. To decrease this tendency, it is important that teachers are aware of the issue and that the community as a whole works to implement policies that actually work, and eliminate the ones that strengthen the pipeline. Looking specifically at the pipeline amongst individuals with disabilities, it is evident that the population of

Schools around the nation are contracting polices officer to patrol their schools and students. Police officers are known as School Resource Officer’s (SRO’s) like if given them a different name would matter, instead of being resourceful they are up holding the law in harsh ways. There are many SRO’s in schools and this has led to high number of arrests and criminal charges, instead of keeping a safer environment for the children it is becoming a hunting ground (Schept, Wall, & Brisman). Before when a child did something wrong they were given detention, standards, a parent-meeting or maybe even sent to the office, but now the student are sent to the police officer in their schools. Once they are sent to her/him they are punish in such a different way where they can be expelled, suspense or even taken to jail.

This problem in Americas school system does not have to continue this way. There are changes that can be made and policies that need to be changed in order to provide the proper access to education for all students. The Association of Mexican America Educators presents research done with educators of low-income Latino students and what they believe needs to be changed to provide well for students. The article shares four main areas that need to be changed in order to see change in the system; “1) The immediate needs in the schools; 2) Expectations of students and possibilities; 3) The relationship between the educational leaders and the community; and 4) Being stakeholders versus change agents”(Fujimoto, Garcia, Medina, & Perez, p 88).

Often times it’s the student’s needs and the school being unable to meet the student’s needs that lead to the student being disciplined. Kids who are behind academically, and unable to perform at the same level as their peers often act out in frustration or humiliation (Noguera, 2003). Once these students are labelled as difficult, incorrigible, and unteachable they tend to believe these things about themselves and act out more in class which leads to a cycle of discipline that can ultimately lead to permanent expulsion. For some of these students, these continued rule violations lead to run-ins with the police and the criminal justice system. School administrators who are at times frustrated themselves from failed attempts to steer children from a “bad path” don’t realize that in throwing their hands up and giving up on these students, are in a way helping shuttle students from school to the penitentiary (Noguera, 2003).

The school-to-prison pipeline in the United States is a figure of speech used to describe the increasing patterns of interaction students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a consequence of procedures used by many school systems. A specific procedure would be the zero tolerance policies and the use of officers in schools. Currently in today’s American schools many children of color are being unfairly judged and treated by the public school systems zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies have been implemented in schools in the last 20 years that include inserting school resource officers in schools and cracking down on all behavior that any authority figure may deem as a form of bad behavior. The policy is based upon deterring future misbehavior and is central to the philosophy of zero tolerance, and the effect of any punishment on future behavior is what defines effective punishment (Skinner, 1953). Zero tolerance policies causes the school environment to feel more like a prison and ultimately leads to black and Latinos being judged and guided to the prison system. A zero-tolerance policy orders predetermined penalties or punishments for specific wrongdoings.

The school to prison pipeline is harmful to the education system because it targets students, especially minorities to mold into the criminal justice system. This could be detrimental to their self-esteem and success in school because the pipeline was made to

“Tomorrow 's future is in the hands of the youth of today” is not a particularly new sentiment. But what is new, what has become a pressing question, is what is to become of the future if our youth are behind bars instead of in schools? Youth today are being pushed into the criminal justice system at an alarming rate. This issue is known as the school to prison pipeline ─ the rapid rate at which children are pushed out of schools and into the criminal justice system. The school to prison pipeline is a term that came into use by activists in the late 1970’s and has gained recognition throughout the years as the issue became more prominent in the 1990’s. Some activists view policies meant to “correct” misbehaviors, especially in regards to Zero Tolerance policies and the policing of schools, as a major contributor to the pipeline. Others believe that the funding of schools and the education standards are to blame for the rapid increase of youth incarcerations. While the school to prison pipeline affects every student, African American students, both male and female, are more often the victim of discrimination in education. The school to prison pipeline must end, and the trend must be reversed.

Proceedings of The National Conference On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2009 University of Wisconsin La-Crosse La-Crosse, Wisconsin April 16 - 18, 2009