The School-To-Prison Pipeline

Many people believe that there is a direct correlation between the education system and the criminal justice system in the United States. This may seem surprising to some, but research indicates that both poor education, specifically literacy rates among young students, and poorly administered discipline can be directly linked to an increase in imprisonment toward certain students. This is the subject matter of two separate articles: The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy by Troy at Literacy Mid-South, and The School-to-Prison Pipeline by Marilyn Elias.

Although slightly different in content, both of these pieces generally share a similar overall message: there is a distinct problem in our schooling system in this country, and as a result it is quite often forcing kids to follow a bad path, inevitably landing them in jail sometime down the road. In this perspective, schools can be viewed as a natural gateway into the so-called “School-to-Prison pipeline”, which is

essentially a trap that is very difficult to escape once initiated.

This is what Elias encapsulates in her article, and there are various reasons that she pinpoints as initial triggers of this problem. Primarily, a large part has to do with incorrect administration of disciplinary action within schools by teachers and staff. Troy also touches on this matter in his article, stating that teachers should feel a moral obligation to analyze the situation more effectively when dealing with students that are acting out rather than simply sending them off to the Principals or Deans office. Another reason that might be behind this issue, according to Elias, is the large increase in police and resource officers within schools nowadays. It is reasonable to assume that placing officers in schools simply makes it easier for troublemakers to have increased run-ins with the law at a very young age, therefore eliminating a “middle man” and allowing for students to fall into the

School-to-Prison trap much quicker. Furthermore, statistics have shown that African-Americans and students with disabilities are quite often unfairly targeted by school’s disciplinary systems. This creates an environment where these specific students may feel alienated or more obligated to cause trouble and act out, simply because they have already been targeted in the first place and it may seem futile to try and fight it. In her article, Elias uses a great deal of logos by incorporating numerous statistics that prove some of the injustices our education system is committing.
Similarly, Troy’s article uses an equally great amount of logos to prove his point. His article also demonstrates a relationship between education and incarceration, however it differs due to the fact that he cites a different reasoning behind the problem, tracing all the way back to third grade. Apparently, there is a very clear link between illiteracy and imprisonment, and a well known indicator is whether or not the student is reading at grade-level material by the third grade. The most common reasoning behind dropping out for most students is simply a loss of interest, and this can very often be due to struggling academically at a young age. If you think about it, being illiterate in 3rd grade might cause you to feel inferior or slow compared to your classmates who are already skilled at reading. Feeling this way at a young age is a surefire way toward a lack of motivation later on in your academic career, and ultimately this problem leads to an immense amount of kids in this country who end up dropping out and facing problems with the law early on. Some of the factors that determine whether a student meets the reading proficiency or not by 3rd grade include mental and social development early in life, as well as health issues, family issues and school attendance levels.