School to Prison Pipeline Researched & Presented by: Chris, Brittney, Noel & Kathryn

What is it? This term refers to the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education. (ALCU)

How can someone start here….. …….and end up here?

Building Blocks “Tough on Crime” & The War on Drugs: A Brief History ● Failing Public Schools ● Zero-Tolerance Discipline ● Police Presence in Hallways ● Disciplinary Alternative Schools ● Court involvement and Juvenile Detention Simulation - What does this look like? What do we do now?

Historic Context -Slavery as an economic institution - ⅗ in population representation -15th Amendment -Civil Rights Movement -Rise of crime

War on Drugs Richard Nixon and “public enemy number one.” The advent of the War on Drugs and the political climate at the time.

The War on Drugs: The Reagan Years Reagan’s campaign, coded racism, “welfare queens,” and “predators.” The official War on Drugs (October 1982) FBI antidrug funding increases from $8 million to $95 million between 1980 and At the same time, the budget for the National Institute for Drug Abuse drops from $274 million to $57 million and antidrug funds for the Department of Education plummet from $14 million to $3 million. The employment rate of black men drops from 70% to 28% at the height of the War on Drugs in Crack enters cities in 1985 as joblessness becomes a bigger issue.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 The gateway to our modern day War on Drugs: Military participation in narcotics control Harsher sentencing Death penalty for drug crimes Admission of illegally obtained evidence Different sentences for racially favored drugs Evictions

President Bush, Sr., President Clinton, and the Modern Day War on Drugs August 1989: George Bush, Sr. declares drug use as “the most pressing problem facing the nation.” The public agrees as 64% of those polled label drugs as the nation’s most significant problem. “The new racial caste system—mass incarceration” (Michelle Alexander) Clinton’s “One Strike and You’re Out” Initiative

#1: Failing Public Schools

#2 Zero-Tolerance Discipline

#3 Police Presence in Hallways School Resource Officers (SROs) Roles: Law enforcement officer; law-related counselor; and law- related educator. Wait, law-related educator? Removal of Fourth Amendment from schools Who enforces discipline in the classroom? What happens with evidence found in the school?

#4 Disciplinary Alternative Schools What is it, and what is its History (in brief)? In theory, alternative schools exist to advocate and provide optional learning environments for students struggling in traditional school environments. -Beginning in the early 1980’s, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention began promoting alternative schools for delinquent students -Expansion of alternative schools for at-risk students is skyrocketing -Currently, demand for alternative schools outweighs the supply particularly in urban districts

So How Do Students Get There In the First Place? Problems With the Pushout to Alternative Schools: - Use of referrals to alternative schools as a way to avoid responsibility for progress of low-performing students. - Over-representation of African American students, Hispanic students, and special ed. students in disciplinary referrals. -Alarming rate of discharges of students to DAEPs -Illegal discharge of high school students each year without receiving diplomas.

Concerns with Alternative Schools Set up: -91% of districts have curricula leading to regular high school diploma -87% require smaller class sizes than regular schools -79% offer career counseling -79% offer crisis/behavioral intervention Overarching theme within the research: -Success of these schools is hard to measure due to a lack of empirical evidence and research. -Question of equality of the education. -“fix the child” tactics and punishment do not produce outcomes policy makers, educators, and the public seek. -There is NO affect on delinquent behavior.

#5 Court Involvement and Juvenile Detention -Students enter the Juvenile Justice System through school referrals. -All public school students subject to suspension or expulsion due to zero tolerance policies are entitled to due process and equal protection under the 14th amendment. -Many states have enacted guideline systems for juvenile delinquency dispositions. -Students who enter this system face many barriers to their re- entry into traditional schools.

Simulation - What does this look like? ● Who is part of the federal penitentiary system? ● Who is being arrested in schools? ● What does the public school population look like? ACLU, NCES

To Consider…. ● 35 million of those in public education are under 8th grade ● Piper Kerman & Orange is the New Black ● February 2015 “Coalition for Public Safety”

Works Cited ● for-criminal-justice-gets-a-koch-funded-boost/ for-criminal-justice-gets-a-koch-funded-boost/ ● ● fact-sheet/ fact-sheet/ ● ● ● ●

Works Cited ● Alexander, Michelle.The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, ● Beger, Randall R. “Expansion of Police Power in Public Schools and the Vanishing Rights of Students.” Social Justice 29.1/2 (2002): ● Price, Peter.“When is a Police Officer an Officer of the Law?: The Status of Police Officers in Schools” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 99.2 (2009):