Linkages Between Education and the Criminal Legal System

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session will critique the existing linkages between the education and criminal legal systems in the United States and offer possibilities for better futures. It will feature four thematically related research presentations that focus on these linkages, including (a) narratives from individuals sentenced to life in prison as children; (b) state policies that may facilitate the punishment of students both in and out of school; (c) changes in racial disproportionality in exclusionary discipline following the removal of police from schools; and (d) the post-secondary educational aspirations of gang-involved youth. Putting these presentations in conversation with each other will allow for a fruitful critique of how the criminal legal system appears in education and how it can be uprooted.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Policies, Mattering, and Praxis

Chair

• Benjamin W. Fisher, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• School-Lifetime Incarceration Nexus: The Roles of Schools in Sentencing Black Children to Life in Prison - J.Z. Bennett, University of Cincinnati; Christy L. McGuire, University of Pittsburgh; Martez D. Files, University of Pittsburgh

• Removing Police From Schools: Implications for Racial Equity in Exclusionary Discipline - Benjamin W. Fisher, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Deanna N. Devlin, Farmingdale State College - SUNY

• A Qualitative Exploration of Gang-Involved Latino Boys' Educational and Career Aspirations in K–12 - Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California