School to Prison Pipeline
The school to prison pipeline is certain policies that are removing, mostly black and brown, students from educational environments and putting them on a one way path to prison.( ) Schools and administrators are relying on the “zero tolerance” policy and are suspending and expelling students at extreme rates. “Throughout the United States in 2000, there were over three million school suspensions and over 97,000 expulsions. In some states, the number of suspensions exceeded 10% of the number of students enrolled in school in those states.”( ) These constant suspensions and expulsions are giving these students time and freedom to get themselves into trouble instead of being in a structuralized environment. “Studies have shown that a child who has been suspended is more likely to be retained in grade, to drop out, to commit a crime, and/or to end up incarcerated as an adult.”( ) The school to prison pipeline needs to be altered to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system because the system is already determining these kids future without the opportunity for them to break this cycle. Schools need to start functioning as educational environments that provide students with opportunities not sentencing them to a life of imprisonment.