High‐poverty secondary schools and the juvenile justice system: How neither helps the other and how that could change

Abstract

Evidence-based observations of how the juvenile justice and educational systems can work more effectively together are presented.

Protective Webs: Exploring a Role for School Social Workers on Behalf of Delinquent Youths

“…It is an imperative that these youths successfully re-enroll in and attend school. All of the oversight bodies with supervisory responsibility for justice youths demand school attendance, including judges, probation officers, after-care workers, and the school-based staff responsible for truancy prevention (Stephens & Arnette, 2000;Balfanz, Spiridakis, Neild, & Legters, 2003). School social workers may be positioned to help juvenile justice youths successfully transition back to community schools following an incarceration or detention event.…”

Redirecting the teacher's gaze: Teacher education, youth surveillance and the school-to-prison pipeline

“…The contradiction is that such well-intentioned interventions too often exacerbate the problems faced by youth rather than provide solutions. For example, in their study of the intersections between high-poverty high American schools and the juvenile justice system, Balfanz, Spiridakis, Neild, and Legters (2003) documented ways in which youth-serving institutions frequently work at cross purposes. Ironically, in an era of cutbacks in social services for those most in need, rather than easing their transition to productive and responsible adulthood, "incarceration.…”

The Significance of Location: Patterns of School Exclusionary Disciplinary Practices in Public Schools

“…The "school to prison pipeline" refers to the process in which students are removed from schools through exclusionary practices rather than being given adequate counseling, in-house disciplinary due process, and/or resource services and, subsequently, fall into the criminal justice system (Wald & Losen, 2003). The school to prison pipeline is used in the literature to highlight the cyclical and perpetual disadvantages faced by underresourced communities (Balfanz, Spiridakis, Neild, & Legters, 2003;Cregor & Hewitt, 2011), with stern disciplinary procedures and the overreliance of the police force to maintain discipline at schools attributed by some to be the root causes of the school to prison pipeline (Kim, Losen, & Hewitt, 2010).…”