What exactly is the school to prison pipeline? What studies have proven the practices within this to be true?
The school-to-prison pipeline is the process by which some youth are at an elevated risk of contact with the criminal justice system due to the growing alliance between our systems of education and criminal justice. Beginning in the late 1990s, many urban school districts began to implement and enforce disciplinary policies, using a “zero tolerance” approach, that would use severe penalties, usually suspension and expulsion, for even minor violations of a school’s code of conduct. Around the same time, public school systems began incorporating a “universal carceral apparatus” into the schools by using metal detectors, surveillance cameras (e.g., in Chicago Public Schools video feeds go directly to the Chicago Police Department), embedded police officers with arrest authority, etc. to provide “safety and security.” However, it has become clear that strict zero-tolerance policies and a highly visible police presence do not contribute to learning environments, and many of these penalties are disproportionately punishing our most marginalized youth. As I argue in my book, Unequal City, not only are these contacts with police in the institutional setting of a school shaping young people’s perceptions about police and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, they are also shaping their life trajectories. For some youth, particularly those who are the bottom of America’s racial/social strata, the contacts with police in school are simply the beginning of what are likely to be repeated contacts with the state and its representatives at deeper and deeper levels of severity.
The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the specific practices of punishing students, particularly young people of color, in ways that put them in direct contact with jails and prisons. These practices include the overuse of suspensions and the inclusion of police officers in school, who can arrest students for school-based infractions.
Several reports have established the existence of the school-to-prison pipeline, including this report that analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education and found that the pipeline starts as early as preschool.
One great resource if the ACLU’s guide on how it works. Similar resources include this Justice Policy report and UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. Here’s another one from the Advancement Project with helpful visuals.
The school to prison pipeline is a set of policies and practices in schools that push kids out of the education system and into the criminal justice system. It includes excessive use of detention and expulsion, and has law enforcement address student misbehavior that when I was growing up would have been handled by teachers and parents.
By bringing students into the criminal justice system, we also see the mirror effect of the criminal justice system coming into schools, which more and more resemble prisons rather than places of learning, with metal detectors, heavy surveillance, and other tools that make students feel like they are constantly being punished. The Sentencing Project and others have looked at the detrimental effects of these policies.
The “school to prison pipeline” refers collectively to practices that push students out of the education system and into the criminal justice system. Punitive practices like suspension, removal to an alternative school, and arrest are applied, too often for minor infractions like “disruption” or “defiance.” When students experience these consequences, they miss out on educational time and it can be hard to catch up. Experiencing punitive discipline can also make students feel less attached to their school, a critical factor in school success and graduation. Often, punitive discipline takes the place of positive supports as a very short-term solution to behaviors that may result from a disability or from other physical or psychological stresses in a young person’s life. This can end up exacerbating challenging behaviors. Rather than working to keep young people educationally engaged, the school to prison pipeline pushes them out. It’s not very surprising then, that students who experience exclusionary discipline like suspensions are less likely to complete school and more likely to have future contact with the juvenile and criminal justice system. Sometimes, the criminal justice system end of the pipeline actually reaches into schools. For example, some schools have police officers regularly patrolling the halls, and breaking a school rule can become a criminal violation.
Students of color and students with disabilities are more likely to be harmed by the school to prison pipeline. There is a large body of research demonstrating disparities in school discipline. The most recent data collection from the U.S. Department of Education found that, across the U.S., Black students were 3.8 times more likely to receive a suspension than were white students. This included Black girls, who were 8% of students, but 14% of suspensions. American Indian or Alaska Native, Latino, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and multiracial boys were also disproportionately suspended. Students with disabilities were more than twice as likely to be suspended. One factor that contributes to the school to prison pipeline is implicit bias. For example, one study found that Black students were more likely to be disciplined for less serious and subjective offenses (categories like “disrespect,” which depend upon personal perception) and that fewer disparities existed in categories of more serious and objectively defined offenses (something like alcohol possession).
