Stopping The School To Prison Pipeline

Student’s Name Course Instructor Date School to Prison Pipeline Following an increase in the number of shootings in the U.S schools way back in the 1990’s, there rose a great need to develop laws, policies and systems that would ensure that all educational institutions were safe. In the development of safety methods, the school to prison pipeline process came into play. With this process, there is zero tolerance for any offence committed by students whether small or large in magnitude and such offences often result into expulsions or releasing students into the hands of law enforcers and the criminal justice system. Consequently, many are forced to leave school and a majority end up in jail. It is necessary to stop this pipeline because it unfairly hurts students of color, there are alternative approaches that can be used, and because taxpayers’ money is wasted through this process when it could be used for other meaningful purposes. The policies put in place to ensure safety unfairly hurt the students of color and therefore the pipeline has to stop. This is particularly true for African Americans who seem to be targeted by such laws and policies. As Alexander (6-7) points out there is a higher chance for black men to be arrested compared to other races in the U.S, and that quiet a good number of young black males have spent time in prison. In addition, the number of prisoners in the U.S has been noted to have increased over time and surprisingly, the blacks make up the greatest percentage of these prisoners. Alexander further notes that it is almost a norm to see law enforcers targeting the black neighborhoods in the U.S in any drug or criminal related issues. The situation is not made any better with the knowledge that most of those put in correctional facilities are African Americans. Generally, there is that preconceived notion that African Americans are associated with crime and this stereotype is imprinted into the minds of the white Americans and especially the law enforcers and the criminal justice system. That explains why young black men can easily be picked from the U.S street by the police without the public making any fuss because they believe, in one way or another he has committed some crime. Having policies that encourage zero tolerance in school in a society like this, which holds great prejudices against the blacks, puts students in an unfair position because they automatically become the main targets. A study by Rudd (1) found out that indeed African Americans often became victims where school discipline was involved, with a majority being suspended or expelled from school. The study further noted that blacks also accounted for about 70% of the arrests made in school. From this, it is evident that such policies used in school to prison pipeline hurt the black students and hence the need to stop the pipeline. The pipeline has to stop because jail is not always the solution to discipline cases, there are alternative approaches that can be used. Instead of focusing on criminalizing students, lawmakers and educators can look into an alternative method such as using the restorative justice model. In this criminal justice system, focus is placed on repairing any harm resulting from wrong behavior and all those affe...