School-To-Prison Pipeline Decried

When one thinks of schools, the ideas that come to mind are generally those of the first steps on a pathway to success. Incarceration statistics in Connecticut and across the U.S. tell a different story for some students.

Discipline policies in schools from kindergarten through 12 grade appear to be creating problems rather than solving them, with more and more students ending up with criminal records as early as age 7.

Host N’Zinga Shani, head of community outreach program OneWorld Progressive Institute, explored that issue in a new episode of her OneWorld’s Civic Engagement’s public access program, titled ​“Prisons and Their Consequences.”

Joining the discussion were Mike Lawlor, the undersecretary of criminal justice policy at the state Office of Policy and Management, Kumar Viswanathan, the director of member development for the Phoenix Association, Brian Moran of the Malta Justice Initiative, and Rev. Marilyn Kendrix, associate pastor at the Church of the Redeemer and an activist against mass incarceration. 

Shani introduced the program with an appeal to Connecticut taxpayers, whose money is being spent on what she suggests are ineffective prison systems.

“We spend $50,000 per year on each inmate, yet many of these inmates never go on to get their GEDs, or to find jobs,” said Shani. ​“All of us are affected by prisons, whether we know incarcerated people or not.” Currently, Connecticut’s prisons hold about 16,300 inmates, a number many believe is too high.

There are many reasons for this mass incarceration; recently, the ​“zero tolerance policy” in schools has come under fire. This policy supports punishing any infraction of a rule, and is meant to combat drug abuse and violence. Instead of being sent to administrators or the principal, more and more students are ending up being sent to the police.

“Zero tolerance sounds like a good idea,” said Rev. Kendrix. ​“But instead it just results in more children being arrested. We should be teaching kids about how to behave and get along in society. When we suspend them from school, we just separate from the group, instead of using the incident as a learning experience.” These suspensions have serious consequences. Students suspended in 11th and 12th grade are far more likely to drop out of college during their first year, and get into trouble.

“We must address and solve issues like drug abuse and violence, rather than sending kids right to the police,” said Brian Moran. Moran is one of the authors of The Justice Imperative, a book that focuses on how ​“hyper incarceration has hijacked the American dream.”

Lawlor addressed the issue of a school to prison pipeline, saying that there is a strong correlation between school suspension and kids going to jail down the road.

Instead of sending kids straight to the police or to suspension, Lawlor urged teachers to look to the root cause of the issue. There are thousands of kids in kindergarten suspended every year, and for many teachers, suspension has become the ​“easy button” to the solution. It makes sense on some level: If students disrupt class, kicking them out makes teacher’s jobs much easier. But this suspension, even at the ages of 6 and 7, can lead to far more serious consequences.

(Click here for a story about how New Haven is exploring alternatives through a ​“restorative justice” effort.)

“If our goal is to prevent crime, we have to change how we deal with misbehavior,” said Lawlor. ​“When you choose to suspend a student, you’re almost certainly putting that kid on a trajectory to failure.”

Viswanathan, of the Phoenix Association, spoke on the issue from firsthand experience. The Phoenix Association is a program made up of formerly incarcerated men and women who work to assist criminal justice programs to transform from punishment to rehabilitation programs. Viswanathan himself served 24 years in prison, after taking someone’s life at age 19.

“Education may be the single most important determinate of success,” said Viswanathan. ​“So it’s ironic that our educational systems are sending kids to prison.”

It’s not only serving time that’s difficult; often, reentry into civilian life can be even harder than a sentence. Viswanathan spoke from personal experience about his reentry into society. ​“It’s been 18 months, but it’s been very difficult,” he said. ​“I was released in Alabama, and I’d been locked up for nearly a quarter of a century. I knew nothing about the world.” And Viswanathan was one of the lucky few who had people waiting for him when he was released. ​“Without family members or friends to support them, people will do whatever they can to survive.”

Ex-convicts rarely find successful jobs, which can lead them to take desperate measures to survive outside of prison, and these measures often put them back behind bars. These roadblocks demonstrate the brutality of the justice system. It has no mercy for those who need it most. ​“The very structure these people have been put in is meant for them to fail,” said Shani. This failure can be prevented by giving released prisoners a second chance, she argued, through programs to employ ex-offenders and help them find homes, so that they can be restored to their families and their communities.