Comprehending Mass Incarceration authored by James Kilgore

According to James Kilgore (2015) in Chapter 8 of his book, “Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle Of Our Time”, our country’s lacking “education system” played a part in the development of criminal policies with which juveniles were ushered through school under “zero tolerance” policies which attempted to discipline these individuals for school-related offenses. As time went on, it was clear that the demographic that was most often targeted consisted of young people of color.

These individuals have had to deal with policies in academic institutions (as well as outside of those institutions) designed to try to instill order however those policies only seem to further criminalize youth of color who are then ushered through a systematic path toward prison at some point of their lives. The school-to-prison pipeline is detrimental to our society and must have its frameworks understood from a racial perspective to be able to demolish it.

The solutions brought up by critics to do so must understand how race and gender are factors within the pipeline and how the prison industrial complex has made an impact on academic institutions by further categorizing youths of color as inherent “offenders”.

First, we need to understand what the school-to-prison pipeline is and how it came to pass here in the U.S. The system is described as “a path from the education system to the juvenile or adult criminal justice system” (McCarter, 2017). This “path” would include zero-tolerance policies, which constitute allowing punishments like detention, suspension, and/or expulsion for students who broke the rules or possessed harmful objects, such as weaponry.

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First established by the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, zero-tolerance policies were applied by academic institutions to not only focus on banning weapons from their campuses, but also offer stricter warnings on anyone involved with “fighting…, insubordination, and bullying.” (Evans & Lester, 2012). Unfortunately, the leeway given to these institutions has led to unnecessary tactics of violence by school resource officers, officers ordained by law to employment law and order within schools similar to law enforcement, more tension between students and authority figures, and evident examples of instances of racial bias, which will be touched upon throughout this essay. The effects on students, especially students of color, are deafening to the point where many questions the importance of zero tolerance and whether or not it is necessary for ensuring students’ behaviors are handled properly.

According to Christopher Mallett (2016), African-American males were more likely than males of other races “to be suspended or expelled” in 2012. And with levels of poverty also being high for that particular group, it only fuels the school-to-prison pipeline to a degree of insensitivity to those who suffer in this country more than those who benefit from these systems in place. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency throughout the 1980s, conservatives and neo-liberals sought to apply more rigor to the education system by adopting zero-tolerance policies. Zero tolerance was considered imposing strict rules in schools and ensuring that students who did not abide by such rules were placed under punishment, whether it was a warning, detention, suspension, or even expulsion. What coincided with these new developments was the War on Drugs, which the Reagan administration was keen on focusing on to end what was considered rampant drug use in the U.S. Unfortunately, the tactics used as a means to control and criminalize anyone associated with drugs left devastating effects. Black families were left torn apart as their homes were raided by law enforcement over trivial warrants, black, and Latino men were being incarcerated at higher rates than white men, and youths of color were beginning to be seen as “super-predators” (Kilgore, 2015) in the media. The term “super-predator” arose from incidents such as the Central Park jogger incident in 1989 (Kilgore, 2015) and was used to describe juvenile offenders in inner cities. This incident involved Trisha Meili, a white woman then in her late-20s, who was supposedly raped and assaulted by a group of Black and Latino teens in Central Park, New York.

This case was sensationalized in the media at the time to show how dangerous New York City had become and how violence and urban decay had to be dealt with swiftly to prevent incidents like the aforementioned case from happening again. Later in 1995, political scientist John DiIulio popularized the term “super-predator” which concocted this image of a juvenile as having no consideration for anyone and getting away with criminal acts without no retrospect of how they could affect others. Even legislation had been passed by the government to curtail these new findings of the “super-predator”, including the Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996 which brought down the age juveniles were tried in court “as adults from 16 to 14 years of age” (Mora & Christianakis, 2013). The chaotic atmosphere that was being created by the Reagan administration and later the Clinton administration in an attempt to hinder illegal activity was only making things worse for people of color. How these terms relate to the school-to-prison pipeline is the particular focus on youths of color and how they are deemed criminals before even engaging in any sort of criminal activity. Disguised terms, like “super-predator”, made the public aware of the criminal activity that was going on in the country but left out racial descriptions as a way to veil more racist attitudes. Schools have resorted to increasing numbers of school resource officers (SROs) on their campuses as a way to establish a police presence to enforce the rules of the schools. SROs are responsible for making sure students “pass through metal detectors, undergo random searches,” and are under the surveillance of “security cameras” (Mora & Christianakis, 2013).

The first SRO to be assigned to a school was in Flint, Michigan in the 1950s, and was placed there in an attempt to “decrease school violence” (Ryan, Katsiyannis, Counts & Shelnut, 2018). The number of SROs present in our schools has dramatically increased since then and according to the Advancement Project (2016), the number of SROs in schools increased “38% between 1997 to 2007”. It was believed that this was due to the assumption that “schools were getting more violent” (The Advancement Project, 2016). As stated by the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), SROs’ duties include “law enforcement, teaching, and mentoring” (Ryan et al., 2018). They are also responsible for participating in programs such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which focus on teaching kids about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse; helping to build relationships between teachers/administrators and their respective communities, and ensuring that students and school staff members are safe from problems that may arise within or outside school property. However, time and time again are SROs under fire for abusing their positions within schools. There have been incidents involving SROs being overly aggressive with students when reprimanding them.

One incident includes an SRO who body-slammed a Black female student for not giving up her phone back in October of 2015 yet was ultimately not charged for his actions (The Associated Press, 2016). There must be a way to alleviate this power dynamic between SROs and unsuspecting students to help do away with the pipeline fueled by such behavior. Only then could we restore a more healthy and fair relationship between those with authority and the vulnerable. Earlier, I mentioned how the race was a factor within the ever-present pipeline, but most seem to ignore its effects on gender, especially when young females in our school systems come to the forefront. According to a study done between 2013 and 2014 at a suburban California high school with a diverse student body, it was concluded that “black and Latino students” were being disciplined more than their peers and were “overrepresented in data” that revolved around discipline records at their school (Wun, 2016b). It was clear that these students of color, especially the black… Wun discusses in her article titled, “Unaccounted Foundations: Black Girls, Anti-Black Racism, and Punishment in Schools”, that we must focus on race to understand how it affects marginalized populations every day down to the most trivial circumstances. It is also remarked that black people in this country, and the case of this article, black female students, are rendered vulnerable to “anti-black racism” and are therefore its prime targets not only by the state but also by “institutions and the community” (Wun, 2016b).

As noted earlier in this essay, black and Latino students are subject to several punishments within their schools. Wun described an instance of a black female student who was placed in handcuffs for “’ almost’ fighting” (2016b). The student explained how she was threatened by the police officer who restrained her and had “embarrassed her” in front of her friends (Wun, 2016b). This incident is noted to reflect the violent brutalization of female black bodies in the U.S. There is also a depiction throughout the history of black youth assumed to not be innocent or respectful of authority figures; therefore they have been considered inherently guilty. Organizations like “SayHerName: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women” (Wun, 2016a) have been created to bring awareness to the issues black female youths face at the hands of those who are supposed to serve and protect. It is clear that institutions often neglect how their lack of racial sensitivity can be a factor in the punishment of young black youths and with little to no regard to how this can affect a person socially, emotionally, physically, and mentally, it makes matters worse instead of coming up with viable solutions to remove these prejudices. Lastly, I want to expand on the efforts taken to demolish the school-to-prison pipeline and replace it with more suitable methods to establish order in schools. That is where restorative justice comes in.

Restorative justice refers to approaches that can be applied to meet the needs of students who are subject to, in this case, racial disparity and can respond to instances of “behavioral disruptions” that inhibit students from participating in their classrooms (Schiff, 2018). Therefore with these restorative practices, school officials could work with students to figure out the root of their issues and can help determine what needs to be done to prevent them from reoccurring. According to Schiff (2018), restorative justice helps reduce recidivism, the regression to criminal offenses, and “increases positive relationships”. Proponents of restorative justice suggest that the philosophy considers crime “a violation of individuals, relationships, and communities” (Schiff, 2018). With students of color believing they are most often at risk of being punished due to their race or economic background, restorative justice can include having schools with staff members who reflect the population they serve, for instance mainly black teachers educating populations comprised mainly of black students. Another example is to create safe spaces and spark dialogue by marginalized students to voice their objections to community ills that can, in turn, affect them academically. Challenging students to engage in “supportive processes” to heck their behavior can help limit the need for school punishments that only harm the students and their peers (Mirsky, 2011).

What remains certain is the need to address the issues in communities where students of color are victimized and considered wrongdoers within institutions and other public spheres where they are supposed to be safe. Throughout this essay, I explained how factors contributing to the punitive practices against students of color reflect our broader society’s treatment and perception of black and marginalized people, without giving much thought to how that would affect these people. The school-to-prison pipeline is responsible for promoting unwarranted injustice toward students of color and allows authority figures like school resource officers, school administrators, and teachers the ability to punish students they assume to likely cause trouble within a school. With restorative justice can we make aware of the negative connotations of the school-to-prison pipeline and remove it from our academic institutions once and for all.