No thanks, Officer Krupke: Shutting down the school-to-prison pipeline |
Winter 2009 • Volume 8 • Issue 1
More than 60,000 inmates - a population roughly the size of Schenectady - inhabit 67 correctional facilities within New York State. Many are individuals who first got in trouble when in school.
Research shows that a child who has been suspended or expelled is more likely to fall behind in school, be retained a grade, drop out of high school, commit a crime and become incarcerated as an adult. Critics say many students - often poor and from minority groups - are “pushed” into the criminal justice system in a phenomenon called “the school-to-prison pipeline.”
In studies of the relationship between school discipline and incarceration, school boards are usually cast in the role of the villain. Analysts say students’ downward spirals often begin with school districts’ zero tolerance policies and the suspensions and expulsions they trigger. Advocates for change in school discipline and juvenile justice say children are being denied their right to an education as a result of school and government policies and practices.
