Prison Pipeline

School to Prison Pipeline

Within our society we have many different saying that are meant to bring unity to our county in respects to watching over and protecting the innocents. Even in the bible, God gives the command in Proverbs 31:8-9 (New Livings Translation) to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless and see they get justice. As I have researched the topic of the school to prison pipeline it could not be any more applicable to this topic, as this epidemic as plagued our public school systems in America. Within this paper I will explain what the school to prison pipeline is. I will also give the history prior to and after the problem of the pipeline,

In the 1980s we began to see the implications of puntive policies in both the criminal justice system and the public education system. One policy that is a major contributor to the pipeline is the zero tolerance policy, which was built of previous policies such as the Gun Free School Act and War on Drugs (Advancement Project , 2010). Bringing us to current day where the reality for American children is growing up in a society that has the highest incarceration rates, where children, especially those of minority are more likelty to be sitting in a prison cell than a college dorm (Lamarche,

According to the Advancement Project, the Zero Tolerance Policy contibues to a number of problems to included the denial of education due to increased suspension and explusion rates, referrals to inadequate alternative schools, lower test scores, higher dropout rates and racial profiling of students. Citing that once many of these youth are in “the system” they never get back on the academic track. With schools often refusing to readmit them (Heitzeg, 2009). The Zero Tolerance Policy plays its part in facilitating four different pathways into the legal system from the schools (James,