Javier on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This video and article addresses the school-to-prison pipeline, “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.” The article by the ACLU highlights the problems and consequences of the youth control complex, particularly the harshness of hyper-criminalization and its role in pushing students into prison. The Young Turks video highlights the absurdity and unfairness of such policies in criminalizing all forms of behaviors. As stated by Ana Kasparian from the Young Turks, “anything remotely weird or suspicious is reported to the bomb squad,” highlighting how hyper-criminalization has led to criminalizing everything. It is very alarming how a small prank can lead to the possibility of being imprisoned for 8 years, let alone being arrested. As professor Musheno discussed in class the other day, in his critique of Rio’s use of delinquent vs non-delinquent boys, youth are naturally prone to “fun” or “deviant” activity. Also as stated by Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks, “it is not only the punishment that is upsetting but it’s the fact that we are taking all the fun out of high school.” It is important to note that such severe zero-tolerance policies not only are harshly implemented on those engaged in truly criminal activity but also on the innocent or law-abiding youth. Even the most innocent of youth are becoming criminalized and stigmatized because of these zero-tolerance policies. This is like racial profiling, which not only severely effects the guilty but also severely affects the innocent who are also harassed, victimized, and stigmatized. The ACLU states that “most current [zero-tolerance] policies eliminate the common sense that comes with discretion and, at great cost to society and to children and families, do little to improve school safety.” Zero-tolerance one-size-fits-all solutions eliminates the possibility of common sense discretion or street smart as discussed in Cops, Teachers, Counselors. The solution to everything is becoming punishment. Aggressive policing such as zero-tolerance and stop&frisk clearly, as discussed in the video, threatens procedural justice and consequently undermines legitimacy. The Young Turks express the disaffection of such policies by calling them down right stupid. It is evident that police-citizen relations will continue to diminish if such unfairness continues to be exposed beyond marginalized communities who bear the biggest brunt. It is sad that more resources are being allocated away from education towards increased surveillance which ironically does not increase safety. As discussed in Punished and in the ACLU article, educational institutions are becoming more coupled with criminal justice institutions which pull public funding away from nurturing educational programs towards inefficient and punitive criminal justice programs. School’s become prison replicas that are surveilled by officers with little experience in dealing with kids. Rather than allocate resources to youth support complexes to guide youth out of marginalization, they are allocated towards increased surveillance. This is similar to the welfare system, in which resources are allocated to expand surveillance rather than to help recipients become independent. Likewise, they are punished for any deviation from the rules.