Discipline and the Pipeline to the 'Pen': A Proposal for Change

Consciously or subconsciously, educators are funneling our children from schools to prisons. Moreover, they’re uploading African American and Hispanic children into the system at a number that is measurably out of proportion to their White counterparts. Ticketing students for minor behavior infractions and labeling them as “alternative” often causes them to act out alternatively. Becker (1963) believes that those who create rules and labels for others that do not follow those rules are actually responsible for creating deviance. Ultimately, when students are hastily ticketed and charged when they act out, it’s much easier for them to drop out of school and drop in to a penal institution.