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The United States school-to-prison link is a term used to describe the increasing patterns of contact students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a result of the recent practices implemented by educational institutions, specifically zero tolerance policies and the use of police in schools. Activists against the effects of this link refer to it as the School-to-Prison 'Pipeline'. Both "school-to-prison Pipeline and "school-to-prison link" refer to the same idea, link is a more neutral term used when discussing discourse as it demonstrates there is a relationship between the incarceration system and education system, but is less politically fueled than the term pipeline. The term is currently a hot topic of debate in discussions surrounding educational disciplinary policies as media hysteria over youth violence and mass incarceration has grown over the past decade or so .

U.S. School-to-Prison Link increasingly reflects practices of Mass Incarceration unique to the U.S.

The current sociopolitical climate, relating to mass incarceration, existent in the United States serves as a critical component in increasing the contact the incarceration system has with the United States education system, as patterns of criminalization translate into the school context. Specific practices implemented in United States schools over the past ten years to reduce violence in schools, including zero tolerance policies and an increase in School Resource Officers have created the environment for criminalization of youth in schools. This results from patterns of discipline in schools mirroring law enforcement models.

The disciplinary policies and practices that create an environment for the United States school-to-prison link to occur disproportionately affect Latino and Black students which is later reflected in the rates of incarceration. Between 1999 and 2007, the percentage of black students being suspended has increased by twelve percent, while the percentage of white students being suspended has declined since the implementation of zero tolerance policies. Relating this statistic to patterns of overall incarceration in the U.S., from 1980 to 2008 the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people. The graphic to the right shows the uniqueness of this practice in comparison to other countries across the globe, with the United States incarcerating the most amount of people out of any other country in 2008. The United States holds 25% of the world’s prisoners, but only has 5% of the world’s population. Of the total incarcerated population in the United States, 61% are Black or Latino.                        

Causes

See Also: Zero tolerance (schools)

Exclusionary disciplinary policies, specifically zero tolerance policies, that remove students from the school environment increase the probability of a youth coming into contact with the incareration system. Approximately 3.3 million suspensions and over 100,000 expulsions occur each year. This number has nearly doubled since 1974, with rates escalating in the mid 1990s as zero tolerance policies began to be widely adopted. Rising rates of the use of expulsion and suspension are not connected to higher rates of misbehaviors. Zero tolerance policies are discussed in more detail later in the article, in the Current Policies Maintaining the Link section.

Research is increasingly beginning to examine the connections between school failure and later contact with the criminal justice system for minorities Once a child drops out, he or she is eight times more likely to be incarcerated than youth who graduate from high school  Studies have found 68% of all males in state and federal prison do not have a high school diploma. Suspensions and expulsions have been shown to increase a young person's probability of dropping out and becoming involved with the criminal justice system. This increased risk of dropping out and becoming involved with the criminal justice system is caused by factors that result from exclusionary discipline (any discipline that removes a student from the school environment) including; a loss of instruction time, an increased ability to engage in criminal behavior as a result of the lack of daily structure provided through education, and police targeting in and around school grounds.

Disparities

See Also: Youth incarceration in the United States

School disciplinary policies disproportionately affect Black and Latino youth in the education system, a practice known as the discipline gap. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a brief in 2014 outlining the current disparities. Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students. The Advancement Project found that "In the 2006-2007 school year, there was no state in which African-American students were not suspended more often than white students". On average, 5% of white students are suspended, compared to 16% of black students. Black students represent 16% of student enrollment, and represent 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. Combined, 70% of students involved in "In-School arrests or referred to law enforcement are Black or Latino. The majority of these arrests are under zero tolerance policies.

"The evidence shows that such disproportionality is not due entirely to economic disadvantage, nor are there any data supporting the assumption that African American students exhibit higher rates of disruption or violence that would warrant higher rates of discipline. Rather, African American students may be disciplined more severely for less serious or more subjective reasons".

Disparities were found in the implementation of zero tolerance policies (ZTPs) in relation to these minor offenses. In 2010, in North Carolina black students were punished for the same minor offenses, specifically cell phone, dress code, disruptive behavior and display of affection by more than 15 percent for each category of offense than white students. "The Council of State Governments Report found that black students were more likely to be disciplined for less serious “discretionary” offenses, and that when other factors were controlled for, higher percent-ages of White students were disciplined on more serious nondiscretionary grounds, such as possessing drugs or carrying a weapon".

Current policies maintaining the link

Zero tolerance policies

Zero tolerance policies are school disciplinary polices that set predetermined consequences or punishments for specific offenses. The zero tolerance approach was first introduced in the 1980s to reduce drug use in schools. The use of zero tolerance policies spread more widely in the 1990s. To reduce gun violence, the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994 (GFSA) required that federal funding "must 1) have policies to expel for a calendar year any student who brings a firearm to school or to school zone, and 2) report that student to local law enforcement, thereby blurring any distinction between disciplinary infractions at school and the law" . During the 1996-1997 school year, 94% of schools had zero tolerance policies for fire arms, 87% for alcohol, and 79% for violence.                        

Over the past decade zero tolerance policies have expanded to predetermined punishments for a wide degree of rule violations. Zero-tolerance policies do not distinguish between serious and non-serious offenses. All students who commit a given offense receive the same treatment. Behaviors punished by zero tolerance policies are most often non-serious offenses, but are punished on the same terms as a student would be for bringing a gun or drugs to school. In 2006, 95% of out-of-school suspensions were for nonviolent, minor disruptions such as tardiness. In 2006-2007, "out-of-school suspensions for non-serious, non-violent offenses accounted for 37.2% of suspensions in Maryland, whereas only 6.7% of suspensions were issued for dangerous behaviors". In Chicago, the widespread adoption of zero-tolerance policies in 1994 resulted in a 51% increase in student suspensions for the next four years, and a 3,000% increase in expulsions.                                                

The most direct way these policies increase the probability of a youth coming into contact with the incarceration system is through their exclusionary methods. Suspension, expulsion, and an increased risk of dropping out all contribute to a youth's increased chances of becoming involved with the incarceration system. Suspension removes students from the structure and supervision provided through schooling, providing opportunities for youth to engage in criminal activities while not in the school environment. Other factors may include "increased exposure to peers involved in antisocial behavior, as well as effects on school performance and completion and student attitudes toward antisocial behavior". Suspension can lead to feelings of alienation from the school setting that can lead to students to feel rejected, increasing chances of relationships with antisocial peers. Relationships with peers have strong impacts on student behavior, demonstrated through differential association theory. Students are more than twice as likely to be arrested during months in which they are forcibly removed from school. Students who have been suspended are three times more likely to drop out by the 10th grade than students who have never been suspended. Dropping out makes that student three times more likely to be incarcerated.                                                

Policing in schools

Zero tolerance policies increase the number of School Resource Officers (SRO) in schools, which increases the contact a student has with the criminal justice system. Students may be referred by teachers or other administrators but most often zero tolerance policies are directly enforced by police or school resource officers. The practice of increasing the number of police in schools contributes to patterns of criminalization. This increase in SROs has lead to contemporary school discipline beginning to mirror approaches used in legal and law enforcement. Zero tolerance policies increase the use of profiling, a very common practice used in law enforcement. Although to an extent this practice is able to identify students who may engage in misbehavior, the use of profiling is unreliable in ensuring school safety, as this practice over identifies students from minority populations, despite research showing no minorities were involved in the 1990s school shootings. The 1990s school shootings were the main basis for the increase in presence of police in schools.

A Justice Policy Institute report (2011) found a 38% increase in the number of SROs between 1997 and 2007 as a direct result of the growing implementation of zero tolerance policies. In 1999, 54% of students surveyed reported seeing a security guard or police officer in their school, by 2005, this number increased to 68%. The education system has seen a huge increase in the amount of students referred to law enforcement, as a result of misbehaviors in schools. In one city in Georgia, when police officers were introduced into the schools, "school-based referrals to juvenile court in the county increased 600% over a three year period". There was no increase in the number of serious offenses or safety violations during this three year period. In 2012, forty-one states require schools to report students to law enforcement for various misbehaviors on school grounds.

Alternative approaches

Restorative justice model

Restorative justice approaches provide the space for students, teachers, families, schools, and communities to "resolve conflict, promote academic achievement, and address school safety".  The use of restorative justice in schools began in the early 1990s with initiatives in Australia. Restorative justice models are used globally and have recently been introduced to school disciplinary policies in the United States as an alternative approach to current punitive models, such as zero tolerance. The main purpose of the restorative justice model is to reintegrate the student into the school community, moving away from the current exclusionary policies and towards a more inclusive approach. This improves student academic performance, classroom climate, decreases chances of student drop out, and reduces the risk of a student becoming involved with the incarceration system. The model is focused on mediation and discussion where all parties impacted by the behavior can work towards resolving the conflict.