The U.S. School to Prison Pipeline

I recently attended a “Examining the School to Prison Pipeline” seminar in Burien, WA. The Schools to Prison Pipeline (STPP) is often described as a nationwide system of local, state, and federal education as well as public safety policies that push students out of school and into the criminal justice system. The STPP philosophy states that the entire U.S. system disproportionately targets youth of color and youth with disabilities. It also states that inequities such as school discipline, policing practices, high-stakes testing, wealth and healthcare distribution, school grading systems, and the prison-industrial complex all contribute to the Pipeline. This seminar was sponsored by a number of groups including the WA State Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) http://www.k12.wa.us/InstitutionalEd/pubdocs/Pillar.pdf

The seminar I attended brought up that STPP operates both directly and indirectly. Directly, schools send students into the Pipeline through zero tolerance policies and often call police over minor disciplinary incidents. School rules are often enforced through school security measures, metal detectors, pat-downs and frisks, arrests, and referrals to the juvenile justice system. Schools that are pressured to raise graduation rates and testing numbers can sometimes improve their statistics by pushing out low-performing students into GED programs or the juvenile justice system. Indirectly, STPP states that schools may push students towards the criminal justice system by excluding them from the learning environment and isolating them from peers through suspension, expulsion, ineffective retention policies, transfers, and high-stakes testing requirements.

Many speakers with impressive credentials in the educational field and in social work were present. There was one doctor; however, who stated that the prison industrial complex is growing. Actually, growth in the U.S. prison system has slowed down, and in many cases been cut dramatically as in California. After several decades of rapid, steady growth, California’s state prison population peaked at 173,000 in 2006, as of this writing the inmate population is under 120,000 and is forecasted to drop even lower. See: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/3_judge_panel_decision.html  The prison population locked up in Washington State-DOC has also decreased slightly: http://www.doc.wa.gov/aboutdoc/docs/msPrisonPopulationFY2009-2012_001.pdf   Often these drops in population are because of court orders to reduce overcrowding and/or due to the poor economic situation that has affected most state and local governments which forced them to cut back in many areas including corrections. I think it is important to be accurate. What was true a few years ago may not be true today; nevertheless, the seminar discussed many important issues effecting juvenile justice and education.

The need for Early At-Risk Student Intervention was discussed. Special Ed students are federally mandated to get extra one on one help, but not all students of color who are often from poorly funded schools and not in Special Ed. It was noted that in Washington State students have a state constitutional right to an education and that many are having their rights violated. A number was thrown out that only 15% of students in Juvenile lock-up get their GED. While this is a low rate, the speaker neglected to state that in Washington State few juveniles are locked up long enough to get their GED while incarcerated.

It was brought up that curriculum needs to be multi-cultural. I myself as a high school student was involved in protests during the 1970s over books that were totally written from a European and European American standpoint. These protests included a case where we locked the Principle out until we got a social study book that had 1 page about Native Americans, 1 page on how Asians helped build America, 1 page on how Hispanics and Cesar Chavez help feed America, and about half dozen pages on Black History out of 300 some pages. We saw this as a victory and an improvement. While I agree a lot more work has to be done today, I don’t think it is financially responsible or logistically a good idea to have separate race history books. Students should feel all of their ancestors contributed to American society, white kids should not feel blame for slavery that their great great-grand parents may have participated in. There should be productive discussion and lessons on past atrocities in the U.S. and other parts of the world, but students should all come out more united, not more divided.

I also attended a session on “Evidence Based & Promising Practices” in the juvenile justice system. The program presented was the “Raising Our Youth As Leaders” (ROYAL) program out of King County, WA: http://www.svpseattle.org/who-we-are/nonprofits-we-fund/raising-our-youth-as-leaders-project  This program has been described as being one of the more effective programs in the area and I heard a lot about its good work with youth. Today the “buzz word” with juvenile programs is “evidence based”. In order to get certification it costs tens of thousands of dollars to be evaluated and get an approved designation that qualifies a program for government grants. Some businesses and individuals are making a lot of money today off of the “Evidenced Practices” numbers game and on administrative costs while less is seen directly helping youth! While there has been a past problem of some programs being funded with lack of data and not showing any real results, numbers can be crunched, stats can still be skewed. See my earlier Blog post:  Do Anti-Gang Violence Programs Work?   

  

Other sessions examined were Disproportionality of School Discipline, Student Stress, the H.O.P.E. Faith-based program by Louis Guiden http://www.guidenu4life.com/ , Structural/Institutional Racism, Aggression Replacement Therapy (ART), as well as other discussion panels. There was a lot of blaming the system, some which may have merit, but I heard very few seminar attendees wanting to teach the 3 R’s I often talk about: Respect, Responsibility, and Reason. I also heard a lot about government and school dependence to solve problems. I heard very little about the parent's role. There was a lot of talk about reforming the school system but I wondered where is all the money for this and where is the overall action plan? I heard no talk about Teachers Unions and getting their buy in? What about the lack of meeting goals set forth in the "No Child Left Behind Act? My understanding is the Washington Assessment of Learning (WASL) was changed due to future forecasts that too few students would be able to graduate? http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/default.aspx 

There was a “Youth Voice” discussion panel session of former offenders, some former gang members, that was awesome! A half dozen young men of color were very impressive with their cognitive and speaking abilities over the multitude of problems that youth face today. They all sounded very determined to succeed and not let the system or any individual stop them from achieving their goals. Maybe adults should listen more to our young people and give more encouragement to solve their own problems rather than coming up with solutions we think might help them??????    

“Is Race a Factor in Gang Related Violence and Crime?”

This past Memorial Day weekend, Seattle was hit with another rash of violence. In just four drive-by shootings committed in South Seattle, gunmen fired more than 60 rounds, riddling four houses and several cars with bullets. No one was hit in those shootings, but a teenage girl had to quickly dive to her bedroom floor in order to avoid being shot. In another shooting, at the Seattle Center Folk Life Festival, a Hispanic suspect and self-admitted gang member shot an innocent person after the suspect was involved in a confrontation with a third individual. A couple of days before, Justin Ferrari, a 43-year old father of two, was killed in the Central District. A few days before that shooting, there was another murder in the South End by a gangster rapper suspect who gunned down a well known OG during a rap video gathering, allegedly over a piece of jewelry. The accused raps about material things, nice cars, dope, money, pimping, bitches, and murder in songs like "Dumbass Slap":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzcKsvr3358  

Not even half way through the year, Seattle had almost a dozen and a half homicides, while at the same timeframe in 2011 there were only three. The Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (SYVPI) is still in place. So what’s happening with all of the latest violence? Is it just a burp on the radar screen or a sign of a bigger problem?    

It is no big secret that White criminals mostly prey on other Whites. Hispanic gangs mostly prey on other Hispanics. In fact, it is rather shocking to see how often gang members who have racial pride tattoos and often play the race card, victimize their own people.  Crime statistics back this up. Recently, I came across communication from a former WA State politician that criticized the examination of “Black on Black Crime”. This individual claimed that the term “Black on Black Crime” was a nonsense term that caused “fear and loathing for an entire race of people”. Is this Correct or Denial? There is a program in Little Rock, Arkansas, that seems to differ:

http://www.hhscenter.org/bonbstat.html

Years ago, I had several arguments with some well known Chicano activists who blamed all gang activity on the “capitalist and racist system”. It was not the fault of the lumpen gang and criminal element, but the system’s history of abuse towards the masses. But, they negated to note that the fastest growing group of gang members (not the biggest) is suburban middle class White kids. Other local figures, who I respect but disagree with, criticized the large amount of young Latinos currently locked up in the juvenile justice system. Were they talking about L.A. I wondered? I visit the King County Youth Services Center frequently, and on average there are no more than a half dozen Latino youth locked up there at any given time, while the Hispanic population in King County is estimated in 2012 to be close to 150,000 representing approximately 7% of the population. In fact, lately the entire population in the youth detention facility has been under 100 inmates for a County of approximately 2 million people. Maybe the system is too lenient?

It is also no big secret that males make up 90-95% of the incarcerated population of the United States and that people of color make up a disproportionate amount of that population. So does this statistic lend a hand to the argument that males are far more violent than females? Why is it that so many Black and Latino youth are acting violently? Is there a grossly unjust system or are there other issues to consider?

In these individual’s defense, they properly identified education as a key factor in violence and gang involved activity. My own work and surveys show youth that are incarcerated, regardless of race, often dropped out of school between the 9^th and 10^th grades (Freshman and Sophomore years). Many of them could only read or write at the 3^rd or 4^th grade level. They could not function well in society and knew few good life skills to survive in the modern business age. Some did not even know how to fill out a job application, let alone know how to properly dress for an interview, or use professional language during a job interview. Many of them had single mothers that were too busy working to spend a lot of quality time with them and were absent a father figure or good role model when they were a child that could elevate their success in school or success in life.

The first individual mentioned also claimed that two young men robbed robbed their home recently and stated that the robbers were “victims” too. Another Black community leader, who I respect in many ways, promotes apologizing to the young Black generation for letting them down. This puzzles me? Again, all the blame for these criminal’s actions was placed on “the system” not working for them. These individuals often state they feel bad about the perpetrators being locked up, losing their freedom, losing time from their lives, and losing their place in society. There was no blame placed on the parents and no blame was placed on the criminals’ conscience decision to disrespect and victimize another human being. There was no indication in the first case that the criminals broke into the home’s kitchen cupboard just to have something to eat. There was no mentioning of learning about choices and consequences. Both of these individuals have correctly stated that positive interaction with the police at early ages can make a difference in how they view law enforcement and I have addressed many of these issues in my workshops and in my 1^st book:

http://www.amazon.com/Varrio-Warfare-Violence-Latino-Community/dp/147523497X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/191-5064326-0840110

It is obvious to me, more and more today, that many parents do not have good child rearing skills. Many of them came from dysfunctional families and have passed that dysfunction on. The school is viewed not as an institution that can improve their child’s life, but viewed as a convenient and affordable daycare. The children in the school rooms and hallways I visit often lack discipline. Bullying is epidemic! The schools often blame the parents for the child’s behavior and the parents blame the schools for inattention to their child. The kid gets caught in the middle…

I believe the schools not only need to teach the “3 R’s”: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, but “3 Other R’s”: Respect, Responsibility, and Reason. Of course, many schools will state that it is the parents’ job to teach good morals and values. Thus, we go back to square one, many parents are not doing their jobs! Kids should learn how to respect each other and about the harm that teasing and bullying does to the human psyche. They should learn responsibility for their own behaviors. Adults, including police and politicians, need to role model this behavior as an example to the child. Lastly, they should learn to reason and question everything, to think for themselves but use tact, cognitive and analytical thinking of the information that bombards them today in the media and other sources.

I also believe we can do a better job of overhauling the criminal justice system. Far too often people of color, who economically cannot afford an attorney and have little understanding of the process, are given public defenders that tend to push for plea bargains. The “War on Drugs” tends to effect minority youth more. They do not always have parents who can afford private counseling and often turn towards alcohol and drugs instead of seeking good coping therapies and learning conflict resolution strategies. But we must all take responsibility for our own role in crime and other problems in society. I also think we need to rethink our priorities on spending. We spend billions overseas when the infrastructure here at home is literally crumbling beneath our feet. When we do spend on infrastructure, sometimes it is not spent wisely. I saw on the news recently that approximately $30 million spent on Green River Flood preparations, for a flood that never happened, will not be reimbursed by FEMA. Juvenile Justice and Gang Workers were only requesting a few million for Prevention and Intervention programs that were promised but never funded.

I also suspect, as noted in my previous Blog post, “Major Reforms Ahead for Seattle Police?”, that some Officers in Seattle have been less pro-active recently due to threatened or active investigations of the force. This has occurred previously in other big cities under the Department of Justice microscope. We should address this situation now as well as other far reaching complicated issues effecting the Criminal Justice System and the General Public. There is no gang problem, there are gang problems, plural. Therefore, it takes multiple solutions.  Parents, Schools, Gang Workers, Church Clergy, Community Organizations, and Leaders should stop being enablers. Certainly, race, poverty, lack of educational and job opportunities are factors but not the only ones. If we decide to look at all of the issues, leaving nothing sacred or politically incorrect to discuss or examine, then maybe we’ll finally start to better control crime long-term in all of our communities regardless of race?