Rethinking the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Higher Education as Continuum, Rupture or Modification

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Building Civic and Community Engagement in Education

Abstract

Education is frequently framed as a pathway to social mobility and reduced criminal legal system involvement. Yet scholarship on the school-to-prison pipeline demonstrates that for many low-income students of color, K-12 schooling operates as a site of surveillance, exclusion, and social control. While substantial research examines punitive discipline and racialized inequality in primary and secondary education, far less attention has been given to how system-impacted students experience institutions of higher education. College is often positioned as a redemptive “second chance,” but this assumption remains underexamined from the perspectives of those directly and indirectly affected by the criminal legal system. This study extends the school-to-prison framework into higher education and asks: What role does college play in the life course of system-impacted students? Does higher education function as a rupture from prior institutional control, a continuation of surveillance and conditional belonging, or a modification of earlier experiences? Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, this research draws on survey and focus group data from two public institutions in New York State, one four-year university and one community college. The survey employs stratified random sampling to estimate the prevalence of system-impacted students and to examine differences in belonging, institutional trust, and perceptions of governance and monitoring. Focus groups, separated by direct and indirect system exposure, explore how students interpret university rules, authority, and risk management practices in relation to prior institutional experiences. By centering system-impacted students’ perspectives, this study reconceptualizes higher education not only as an educational institution but also as a governance site embedded within broader systems of social control.

Author

• Jeffery White, University at Buffalo