based on those 3 my own essay and write 3 pages reflection

The School to Prison Pipeline: An Opinion Editorial

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Reality of the School to Prison Pipeline: From Schoolhouse to Jailhouse

The school to prison pipeline is a concept in public knowledge, highlighting how the socioeconomic issues within the system facilitate the creation of a conduit from schools to prisons. What has not been discussed in detail, however, is the reality of this concept and the fact that it does exist in this country. The underlying fact is that there are certain minority populations that have since time immemorial been marginalized and today, they are indiscriminately treated by the criminal justice system. African Americans and people of brown skin are the victims.

Black and Hispanic Males make up 59% of the total Prison Population

59% of the total prison population is made up of Black and Hispanic males, according to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics. The numbers are a clear representation of the disparity. Michelle Alexander, noted the reality of mass incarceration in her book The New Jim Crow. Nothing can be further from the truth. This is a country with the highest rates of incarceration, not because it has the most robust system of criminal justice, but because the system is disproportionate against non-whites.

The problem is that these patterns are further promoted by the school to prison pipeline. It would be critical to take a step back and understand exactly where the rain began beating the American Society. In the 1980’s, the then political administration commenced the war on drugs. This was an initiative defined mainly by the zero tolerance policies. These policy system has since been transferred to schools; zero tolerance.

The zero tolerance policies aimed at fighting the war on drugs are now used to enforce discipline in school. Physical restraint, automatic punishment, increased police presence in schools; these are the zero tolerance policies that are in one way or the other facilitating the school to prison pipeline. How? They are a reflection of the society itself. They clearly imply that both in and out of school, certain sections of the populations are indiscriminately handled by the system of criminal justice.

The war on drugs on one hand, the market-oriented education reform on the other hand, led to the creation of an underclass. And recently, in light of the rampant school shootings, the intersection of public schools and the criminal justice system has since intensified. The system has continuously enforced the idea that whether an individual ends up in prison or not is not the culmination of the choices that they make. It simply is the result of the cages that they are born into.

There is hope for the diversion of the school to prison pipeline. The prerequisite for diversion is to have positive collaboration between the education system and the criminal justice system. School districts should for instance be in agreement with police departments in certain issues, including but not limited to limitation of arrests within schools, heavy police presence in schools and the use of restraining measures such as handcuffs.

There is the inherent need for school punishment to be revisited. Zero tolerance policies cannot and should not be copied from the criminal justice system and pasted to the education system, as this clearly encourages the schoolhouse to jailhouse concept. Rather, schools need to adopt other positive behavior intervention and support measures in order to ensure that punishment achieves the correct results. The country has a problem with its software, that is, policies. Until this is addressed, the school to prison pipeline will remain a reality.