Still I Rise: Youth Caught Between the Worlds of Schools and Prisons

Abstract

The US has one of the most inequitably funded school systems and the largest prison population in the industrialized world. These two factors help to construct what is known as the school to prison pipeline. The past 30 years has included punitive policies within schools and the criminal justice system that have resulted in a disproportionate number of Latino and African-American youth being suspended from school, dropping out, and/or incarcerated. In this article, the lived experiences of incarcerated youth framed by institutional policies within prisons and schools are discussed. In total, fifteen interviews with incarcerated youth who spontaneously discussed drug trafficking were analyzed using criminological theory. A key theme for many youth was how a lack of educational opportunity and success shifted their focus to attaining economic opportunities through drug trafficking. Policy implications are discussed relating to school and corrections funding along with the costs to society.Keywords Drug trafficking Á School-to-prison pipeline Á Discipline Á Urban When you're 14 and you're making $4,000-5,000 in 2 days, school doesn't seem as important…I felt like as long as I had money I was safe-meaning I could do anything I wanted. It made me proud of myself.-Darren, incarcerated youth.When I interviewed Darren, from the quote above, his statement initially shocked me but over time I began to hear similar sentiments from other incarcerated youththat school had not provided them something meaningful, not even hope for a better future. Instead, many of the youth expressed finding hope and meaning through B. Hatt (

A Framework for Race‐Related Trauma in the Public Education System and Implications on Health for Black Youth

“…School suspension and expulsion will alienate black youth from school resources and can lead to further gaps in learning . Frustration may emerge from challenges in learning, and some young people may seek other forms of validation or drop out of school altogether . Young people who begin to display a lack of school attendance and skip school to hang out with peers are at risk for other adverse health outcomes .…”

“…Young people who begin to display a lack of school attendance and skip school to hang out with peers are at risk for other adverse health outcomes . Young people who are likely to experience alienation in school often display more oppositional attitudes towards school …”

“…25,32 Frustration may emerge from challenges in learning, and some young people may seek other forms of validation or drop out of school altogether. 31,[33][34][35] Young people who begin to display a lack of school attendance and skip school to hang out with peers are at risk for other adverse health outcomes. 33,36 Young people who are likely to experience alienation in school often display more oppositional attitudes towards school.…”

Processes of Racialization in New York City's Child Welfare System

“…The prison pipeline is the complex set of interrelated political, economic, and social factors that converge in the lives of poor and minority boys to make them far more likely to end up in prison (Children's Defense Fund 2007;Maschi et al 2008). Studies have documented how schools (especially in urban neighborhoods) channel minority youth into the burgeoning prison population (Farmer 2010;Fuentes 2013;Hatt 2011;Monahan and Torres 2010;Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, and Valentine 2009;Saltman and Gabbard 2011;Sussman 2012;Wald and Losen 2003) 7 and how public discourses of "dangerous" or "criminal" youth of color serve to create policies and practices whereby they are caught in the criminal justice system (Tilton 2010;Rios 2011).…”

This is a black-white conversation : navigating race, class, and gender at an urban school.

“…Teachers, who play a crucial role in the labeling and sorting of young people, are influenced by these ideas (Raible and Irizarry 2010). According to Hatt (2011), schools have the "power to create, shape, and regulate social identities through the idea of 'bad boys' that starts as early as elementary school by punishment targeted toward children of color" (p. 477).…”