Written by Chris Pedone and Morgan Taylor
Should schoolchildren be punished for their physical, mental, and social disabilities?
Though the question may sound ridiculous, that is the experience of many disabled students in the public education system.
Disabled students only make up 12 percent of the United State’s student population, but in the 2015- 2016 school year, they accounted for about 26% of the students who received a referral to law enforcement. In Texas, only 20% of students (or over 13,150 students) referred to law enforcement were disabled according to data collected from the U.S Department of Education. This is the school-to-prison pipeline, or the system of policies that criminalizes students in school, at work.
A disabled student may be more disproportionately impacted by the pipeline if they are also a student of color. Laura Marie Thompson, a freelance journalist for the Texas Observer, covered the school-to-prison pipeline in her 2016 article, focusing primarily on disabled students of color in Texas. According to reports she obtained from Texas Appleseed and Texans Care for Children, two organizations that are working to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, school resource officers still discipline students for minor infractions. Complaints regarding tickets arrests and use of force incidents show that students of color and disabled students were disproportionately affected by law enforcement involvement in schools, according to Thompson’s reporting.
Criminal charges brought against students while they’re in school follow them into adulthood, which can make it difficult for students to attend college or seek employment.
Given all the data that shows the harmful impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on disabled and POC students, some individuals and groups are working to reverse its harmful effects. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, or TCJC, is one such organization. The TCJC is a non-profit, policy organization that “advances solutions and builds coalitions to end mass incarceration and foster safer Texas communities,” according to their mission statement.
The TCJC is working “to reduce the number of kids entering youth or adult prisons, to keep kids closer to home in community-based programs,” according to their website. In return this will “improve conditions for the kids but also create a meaningful opportunity for release for people sent to adult facilities as youth.” Keep in mind that to house a juvenile in prison per day costs $441.92, the cost of this has grown slowly. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department has been reducing the population in these facilities, just in 2005 they were able to reduce the amount of Juveniles imprisonment from 5000 to less than 900 in 2018. In 2015, a regionalization plan was enacted with the goal of further downsizing the state lockups by diverting youth to regional facilities. This allows youth to remain closer to their families and communities while shrinking costs for taxpayers. Regional facilities are smaller, more manageable environments that benefit juveniles in need of structured rehabilitative programming. Regionalization keeps juveniles in local settings for therapeutic treatment and allows for more seamless reentry back into the community.
Thanks to Andrew Lade, Criselda Cortez, and Maria Alvarado for their research contributions for the infographic below. Click here to download the PDF version.
