The School-to-Prison Pipeline and Hawai‘i
Tags: Criminal Justice, Hawaii, Schools, Prison, Pipeline

The US education system has largely been regarded as broken, corrupt, and in some cases, unfixable. Whether that is because of the advent of standardized test scores or the over-reliance on the federal government, it is a common feeling to be resentful of the problems of American education. This paper aims to explore a key issue that, over a period of decades, has plagued the education system by storm: the school-to-prison pipeline — its origin, history, and effect on communities.

After 1989, and a nearly 20 year long increase in violent crime, major school districts around the country (such as those in New York, California, and Kentucky) implemented zero-tolerance policies (Price 2009). These policies stemmed from the also-recent adoptions of broken windows policing, a theory that states crime must be controlled early on, and therefore harsher punishments must be placed on smaller crimes to prevent bigger ones from taking place. For example, police place a higher emphasis on stopping graffiti crime to prevent the number of murders or rapes later on. This theory has since been largely debunked.

Federally, Bill Clinton helped to pass the “gun free school zones” act into law (GFSZA). GFSZA is an act of congress that prohibits possessing a firearm within a school zone; In order to receive any type of federal funding, schools would need to implement this policy at their school. The original purpose was to curb the rising of school shootings across the country. Although a good idea in the beginning, the mandate for implementation by withholding federal funds and increasingly strict local amendments to the policy meant that behaviors, not physical items, would later be punished, too. Behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and swearing. Because of this, suspension rates in 2004 had risen 11.9% and 15.3% for boys and girls, respectively (Price 2009).

Despite good intentions, both zero-tolerance and gun free school zones have had the opposite effect of being good. According to Peter Price, “These policies have removed much discretion from teachers and administrators in the application of disciplinary procedures.” This punishment can further lead to decreased academic performance, as J. Lacoe and M. Steinberg notes in their study, Do Suspensions Affect Outcomes? “We find consistent evidence that being suspended decreases student’s academic achievement on both math and ELA standardized tests” they noted, adding later that, “Among students in the elementary and middle grades, being suspended for any infraction decreases both math and ELA scores by 0.04 standard deviations.”

The problem of rapid suspension is larger than just test scores, though. According to a research paper conducted by A. Cuellar and S. Markowitz titled School Suspension and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, the researchers concluded that “…suspension policies designed to handle problem behavior in school may contribute to overall crime rates out of school, highlighting a significant potential dis-advantage of using out-of-school suspension as part of a school disciplinary policy.” The researchers later add, “suspension lead[s] to days spent in the community with reduced supervision and increased opportunities to commit crimes.”

This begs the question of who is being suspended. In a research paper titled Understanding the Black–White School Discipline Gap, researcher J. Kinsler noted a large gap in disciplinary actions between black and white people. For example, in 2000, Black people made up 17% of the US student population, but accounted for double that in out-of-school suspensions, 34%. Although the research paper ultimately comes to the conclusion that racial bias plays a limited role in this disparity, the findings still present a very real issue that is present along racial lines.

Expulsions also play a role. In a study done by A. Ksinan, et al., titled National ethnic and racial disparities in disciplinary practices: A contextual analysis in American secondary schools, researches suggested that black students had a five times greater likelihood of suspension while in middle school. In high school, that likelihood is nine times greater.

With all these new policies coming into place in schools throughout the country, so did School Resource Officers, or SROs. SROs have been in schools with the purpose of school safety since the 1950’s (History 2002). Originally, SROs were part of a pilot program in Flint, Michigan to accomplish the previously mentioned objectives. Despite the program’s success in the mid-50’s, SRO’s would not become as prevalent as they are today until the 1990’s with the rise of school shootings like the Columbine High School Massacre (Weiler 2011). More SROs also became necessary to help enforce the zero tolerance policies that plagued the 1990’s (Petteruti 2011). More SROs in school meant a larger police presence in schools. Today, more than 45% of schools report having an SRO (Sawchuk 2019).

SROs are paid for the first three years by the Community Oriented Policing Services in School Program — or COPS — which is a federal program. After the first three years are over, then it is up to the local police department and/or school to cover the costs. In total, the COPS program has contributed roughly $905 million since 1997 (Petteruti 2011). After the Parkland shooting in Florida that left 17 dead (this school, by the way, had an SRO), 26 different states allocated a total of another $905 million for security upgrades and SROs.

These are resources which could have instead gone to school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a report titled Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students, up to 80% of youth in need of mental health services do not receive services in their communities because existing services are inadequate. And of the students who do seek services, 70–80% of them receive mental health care in their school. These mental health providers — collectively known as School Based Mental Health Providers or SBMH providers — are school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. Despite this, they are still grossly underfunded to such an extent that a majority of states still do not meet recommended student-to-nurse ratios (Staff 2019).

School Resource Officers, in addition to pursuing a role in school safety, often aim to contribute more to schools than just that. Some aim to serve as educators and counselors, and they provide feelings of security. All of which can be conducive to a healthier and positive school environment. Unfortunately though, there is little evidence to support that more police lead to safer schools (Raymond 2010). This is because increased police presence oftentimes leads to more student arrests and thus criminalization of youth (Staff 2019). Beyond this, a number of studies have come to the conclusion that SROs make schools less inclusive by maintaining an emphasis on law and order, whereas more inclusive schools put a higher emphasis on social and emotional well-being (Kupchik 2020). Studies have found that students are less likely to misbehave in inclusive schools. This extends to criminal behavior as well (Cook 2010). Unlike SROs, though, SBMH providers are proven to increase school safety (Staff 2019). Further, SBMH providers increase attendance, decrease suspension rates, and improve academic and graduation rates. “When we choose SROs and police over guidance counselors and teachers, we send a powerful message to students that we are not invested in their success.” said Jim Freeman, senior attorney at Advancement Project, a next generation civil rights organization focused on issues of democracy and race, “And when we handle discipline in the police station instead of inside schools, too often we send our children onto a downward spiral and burden them with a lifetime of barriers to employment, education, and housing.”

All of this has cumulative effects on the populations that these policies affect most. Nationally, Native Hawaiian women are the third highest female population in police referrals and arrests from schools (Staff 2019). In Hawaii, despite having lower suspension rates than the national average, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Black populations are the only ethnic groups in the state to have a higher percentage of suspended students than there are percent enrolled. Further, a 2012 study done by the Office of Youth Services titled, Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Hawaii Juvenile System, showed significant racial disparities among young people arrested with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth being arrested at a rate much higher than that of their white or Asian peers.

Credit: The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians in the Criminal Justice System

This has detrimental long-term effects on Native Hawaiians. According to a 2010 report by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs titled The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians in the Criminal Justice System, Native Hawaiians are overrepresented at every level of the criminal justice system. This includes every stage of the adjudication process from arrest to conviction (Perutti 2010). Native Hawaiians make up approximately 21–24% of the general population, but 37–39% of the prison population (Perutti 2010). Whether it is the percentage of people getting arrested, or the percentage of people incarcerated, Native Hawaiians make up a higher percentage in those categories than they do in the general population.

It is important to note that there is an astounding lack of research on the intersection of education policy and disparate criminal justice outcomes. Because of that, determining causal connections requires further deliberate research on this topic. However, in totality of the present research on behavior, suspension (and expulsion) outcomes, and disparate Native Hawaiian treatment in the criminal justice system, it is evident that there is a connection between the two aforementioned subjects.

What research does make clear is that schooling significantly reduces criminal activity (Lochner 2004). This means finding legitimate alternatives to suspension and expulsion practices, limiting police referrals and arrests, and investing more in school-based mental health providers. According to a study by L. Lochner and E. Moretti titled, The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports, keeping students in school has the added benefit of saving the US as much as $1.4 billion per year per every one percent increase in high school completion. This amounts to $1170-$2100 per additional high school graduate (Lochner 2004).

Work on this issue has come to be part of an umbrella of work called Education Justice. According to the National Education Association, Education Justice is “…engaging educators, students and allies to foster real dialogue around issues of racial justice in education, to examine policies and practices in our school systems and our communities, and to mobilize and take action for education justice.” Current initiatives to combat this issue of racial disparity in the education system are diverse. But chief among them is policy development to address discipline disproportionality. In Hawaii, two bills were introduced in the 2020 legislative session to (1) limit school suspension and (2) increase transparency in school data collection titled HB2203 and SB2486, respectively.

HB2203 would effectively eliminate school suspension for pre-kindergarten through elementary school. It also mandates schools collect data on disparities in suspensions. SB2486 establishes a standardized practice for data collection and then reports the data to the Board of Education and legislature. SB2486 passed this year and was signed into law in May. HB2203 is currently undergoing a re-introduction process and is being actively supported by the ACLU of Hawaii. Regardless, there is still a long way to go until schools can effectively eliminate disparate treatment of certain races. Alongside this there are still several questions left to be answered, such as what pre-dispositions in the education system lead to suspensions later on; causal connections between race and imprisonment starting at the school system; determining needs equitable access to alternative forms of administrative punishment; and the future role of SROs in an increasingly engaged world.

Note: This was a class essay I wrote last semester, but I feel there’s some important takeaways and information for moving forward, so I’m sharing it on my personal Medium for others to check out.