A new report by the Equal Justice Society describes how implicit bias and racial trauma enable the school-to-prison pipeline that betrays thousands of children in our country by criminalizing them instead of providing them with supportive and inclusive school environments.
The U.S. incarcerates more of its children than any other country in the world. The school-to-prison pipeline is a key component of this system that imprisons roughly 70,000 children per year.
Increasingly, harsh school discipline policies that start with suspension or expulsion of students lead to a downward spiral into the criminal justice system. Students removed from the school environment fall behind academically, are at higher risk of getting in trouble, feel stigmatized when they return to school, and are more likely to drop out, never obtaining high school diplomas.
This correlation between overly harsh school discipline, drop-out rates, and the juvenile justice system creates the gateway to the school-to-prison pipeline.
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