Why Increase Mass Incarceration Affect High School Dropout Rates?

Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than seven-fold to over two million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school drop-outs in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought.

Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

Whereas some do better with no family by their side some argued having the same situation as other delinquents who may have had a secure family structure and we see on the two positive borders how family makes an impaction on a child life. In the black community the education field for the youth is vital. Education is one of the few ways out of poverty, prison, and the only way to attain sustainable success, but not if its unequal for a child to receive or the different penalty that go along with being in school as black schoolboy/girl. A lot of favorite athletes and even top rappers was channel in the school-prison pipeline such as Curtis James Jackson, III was a piece of data in the concept.

The school to prison pipeline is an organized nationwide system consisting of local, state and federal education. It is also formed to drive students out of school and into the criminal and juvenile systems, which may result in students dropping out of school early. The school to prison pipeline mainly targets students who are of color and those who struggle with some form of disability. This system is disturbing because, there is nothing being accomplished by removing students from education, which will eventually cause them to struggle before adulthood and even after they reach this point of life. The school to prison pipeline is detrimental because, students may drop out of school, be subject to relying on government assistance to survive, and disregard the decision to further their education because of past experiences.

Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

School to Prison Pipeline Within our society we have many different saying that are meant to bring unity to our county in respects to watching over and protecting the innocents. Even in the bible, God gives the command in Proverbs 31:8-9 (New Livings Translation) to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless and see they get justice. As I have researched the topic of the school to prison pipeline it could not be any more applicable to this topic, as this epidemic as plagued our public school systems in America.

In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars

Along with African-American/Blacks, the Hispanic population is underrepresented at both the state and federal levels while the Caucasian/White population are underrepresented (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). This essay will discuss multiple different races and ethinicities to regard their population make up within the prison system. Although race and ethnicity relate to one another they are different. According to Walker et al. (2018), race is defined as the, “major biological divisions of mankind,” for

In 2009, almost 45 percent of Latina females under five years old were enrolled in school while only 39 percent of Latino males were enrolled. When third grade comes around boys tend to be more than a year behind than girls in writing and reading skills. This shows that there is a serious problem within the education system because it isn’t right for males to be that far behind of what school districts want the kids to be taught. It gets even worse, boys that are colored are at a higher chance of experiencing great differences in consequences and punishments such as suspension and expulsion (Sáenz and Ponjuán, 2012). It saddens me to know that we live in the year 2015 and we still see people experience racism and inequality just because the color of his or her

Within the urban communities, negative perceptions are magnified. Adolescents are more prone to be a product of their environment, especially those whose parents are incarcerated. Because of this trend adolescents are being incarcerated at an alarming rate and sentenced to adult facilities. Lambie & Randall (2013) states, the United States have imposed harsher penalties on serious young offenders, and have consequently increased rates of incarcerated youth and made it easier for youth to be treated and incarcerated as adults within the justice

However, with diversity comes inequalities that people of color face throughout their lives. A particular issue in the United States, specifically in education, is unequal opportunities and treatment in regard to race. Research shows that students from single-parent black families had a high chance of dropping out and participating in illicit behavior (Hallinan 54). While the issue of race is a complicated issue to breach for

Since incarceration leads to political and civil disenfranchisement in the United States, the mass incarceration of black and brown men and the consequent loss of rights to participate in the civil society and its processes are especially concerning. The authors argue that the interplay of racial residential segregation, low-quality schooling, and exposure and vulnerabilities to crime and violence so prevalent in these segregated neighborhoods have established a “public school to prison”

The public school to prison pipeline was examined in the literature review through zero-tolerance policies and the effects it has played on graduation rates. Zero-tolerance policies have dramatically increased students being recommended to the court system according to the literature review. The literature review has shown a need for school districts to examine zero-tolerance policies and the negative effects that it has caused on students. Fran Silverman (2005) discusses students being punished under zero-tolerance and says, “The students were disciplined under their school’s zero tolerance policy and some advocates are saying these codes of conduct have become so strict that schools are turning into criminal justice systems, or worse, jailhouses” (pg. 54).

As a criminal justice major, I was able to take numerous courses that thoroughly analyzed the many aspects of our country’s prison system. These courses taught me that in a system where oppression is rampant, social injustice will also be prevalent. Particularly, the issues of death by incarceration, racial disparities and the prioritization of punitive measures rather than treatment filled me with an indescribable rage. Consequently, my frustration left me with a sense of disappointment and hopelessness and led to me to question whether social equality would ever prevail. This mindset changed after I had the honor of being selected to participate in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange service-learning course.

Racism: Should It Be The Reason To Abandon Students? Freedom Writers written and directed by Richard LaGravenese , based on the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell .“At 16, I’ve probably witnessed more dead bodies than a mortician,” says a Woodrow Wilson High School student, before matter-of-factly describing a life in which gang and domestic violence are everyday occurrences.1 Racism , that is, basing on racial, people are divided into different social classes. Racism not only be the reason to prejudice students, but also be the root of violence. As Eva says: “schools are like the city and the city is just like a person, all of them divided into separate sections, depending on tribes.”