Themes From Currently Incarcerated Individuals About How to Close the School-to-Prison Pipeline

• Published date: 01 January 2025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855241292792
• Author: Sanna King,David C. May,McKayla Joaquim,Rachel Royce
• Date: 01 January 2025
• Subject Matter: Articles

Themes From Currently

Incarcerated Individuals

About How to Close the

School-to-Prison Pipeline

Sanna King

1

, David C. May

1

,

McKayla Joaquim

2

,

and Rachel Royce

1

Abstract

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is a metaphor for the pathway through

which individuals are “pushed”out of school and into the criminal justice sys-

tem. Research suggests that the disproportionate representation of margin-

alized groups in the STPP has important implications for their incarceration

experiences as adults. Nevertheless, no research of which we are aware asks

incarcerated individuals to provide recommendations to deal with the STPP.

We use qualitative data from approximately 500 individuals incarcerated in a

Southeastern state to gain insight about their recommendations for improv-

ing disciplinary practices in school settings. Themes that emerged from their

responses include the importance of communication between students and

teachers and various support programs. Important racial differences in the

themes also exist.

Keywords

school-to-prison pipeline, school discipline, punishment, narratives of

incarcerated people

1

Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA

2

Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School, Takoma Park, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sanna King, Mississippi State Department of Sociology, P.O. Box C, Mississippi State, MS 39762,

USA.

Email: sking@soc.msstate.edu

Article

The Prison Journal

2025, Vol. 105(1) 84–108

© 2024 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855241292792

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Introduction

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is a metaphor for the pathway through

which individuals are “pushed”out of school and into the criminal justice

system. Scholars have argued that there is a strong connection between

youth punishment policies in schools and mass incarceration in the USA

and suggest that the STPP plays an important role in the disproportionate

representation of Black people and other minority and disadvantaged

groups in adult prisons (Kupchik, 2010; Mallett, 2016). The increased expo-

sure of youth to the criminal justice system via school discipline policies has

led many researchers to question the long-term impacts that harsh punish-

ment practices have on students, particularly when these harsh punishments

result in students’introduction into the juvenile justice system. Research

suggests that juveniles who are incarcerated, even for a short time, are

more likely to be incarcerated as adults (Aizer & Doyle, 2015). With

almost 2 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons in the USA

(Kang-Brown et al., 2021), any effort to reduce juvenile incarceration will

have long-term benef‌its for the USA. Reducing the impact of the STPP

will help in that effort.

As noted by Heitzeg (2016), one result of these harsh punishments is that

“minor”misconduct is criminalized, resulting in suspension, expulsion, and

often arrest for the youth involved”(p. 90). Most research in this area suggests

that nonwhite students, LGBTQ +students, poor students, and students

receiving special education services are all disproportionately victimized by

the STPP. This accumulation of short-term consequences that result in long-

term penalties (Skiba et al., 2014), often in response to non-criminal behavior

in school, has signif‌icant negative impacts on young people and their ability to

successfully complete their education and achieve their goals.

A“laundry list”of recommendations to reduce the impact of the STPP

currently exists (see Mallett, 2016, for example). This list includes avoiding

zero-tolerance policies, reducing the presence of police in schools, and uti-

lizing restorative justice programming instead of exclusionary discipline

practices, among several others. Yet, no research of which we are aware

has asked those most impacted by the STPP (incarcerated people) about

how they would recommend closing this pipeline. This research begins to

close that gap by asking individuals incarcerated in a Southeastern state

their recommendations on how they would punish misbehaving youth,

and thus potentially close this pipeline. Two research questions are included

herein. First, what practices or strategies do incarcerated respondents rec-

ommend for schools to use to improve current disciplinary practices?

Second, do these responses vary by race and, if so, how do traditionally

King et al. 85