Kylia McCoy

Professor Allison Fernley

Intro to Writing 1010
9 September 2017

Stepping Stones to the Jailhouse:

The School-to-Prison Pipeline and African-American Girls

The world has gone far from the days of slavery, racism and even the Jim Crow Laws of
the 1980s til the 1950s. With that in mind, though, the United States is still flawed in their
treatment of People and Citizens of Color. Slavery was the first mass control of People of Color
within the U.S and it's legal system. Black and White farmers were originally neighbors,
colleagues and so forth but as the culture grew and changed, there became a need to control the
populace. While racism was still an issue before slavery it was not as prominent in the way we
know it today. People formed a class system based on a person's ability to yield a farm, perform
medical procedures, conduct law and the like. At this point, people were judged more so
meritocratically. Race was still an issue though not as prominent as it became during the early
days of slavery. During the early days of the New World Colonies lower class citizens, generally
black, were able to sign contract to sell themselves into servitude for a set time and for a set
amount of money. This form of servitude first became known in the Virginia Colony around
1615-1620. In other cases, migrants borrowed money for their passage and committed to repay
merchants by pledging to sell themselves as servants in America, a practice known as
redemptioner servitude. (Economic History)

As prisons formed in the Colonies, politicians found it to be more socially beneficial to

have their convicts working over just confinement. A farmer could buy a convict from the prison
for a set duration, or until they payed back a debt. They could keep them as a non-salary
employee for that duration and work them as see fit. Many farmers and labor workers saw the
convicts as less than human because they had broken a serious enough crime to be enslaved. Few
masters and owners found mistreating a servant to be morally acceptable because they did break
a law. Farmers found these servants very beneficial because they would pay a set dollar amount
upfront and not need to account for changes of inflation, dollar worth and economic value. Later,
when the amount of people enslaved leveled out and officials noticed that this progress could
continue but not sustain the growing economic necessity for servants they began trading with
other countries for convicts and eventually non-criminal lower class people. This ultimately
started the enslavement of innocent Africans.

After the abolition of slavery a new caste system was needed to maintain the current caste
system. People saw African-Americans as lesser than White Americans. To maintain control
over the countrys growing lower class labor workers, someone had to be the lowest. Jim Crow
Laws slowly came into effect as Reconstruction ended in the late 1870s. (The Election of 1876)
This new system forced Americans into categories - predictable futures and easy scapegoats.
This caste system elevated the status of poor whites, poor workers felt they couldnt fight for
better rights because at least they werent black. African-Americans were afraid to protest for
better working rights or equality in fear of losing their already unstable jobs, being wrongfully
convicted of a crime, catching the Ku Klux Klans attention or causing more problems for their
friends and family. (Alexander 2010, Chapter 4)

Later, when Jim Crow Laws ended, Mass Incarceration began. The systematic racism of
African-Americans and Latino-Americans is alive in the form of authority figures like police
officers, teachers, judges and so forth. Weather conscious or not by the individual, it is a cultural
system. This begins at a very young age, students as young as six or seven are pressured into
these predetermined categories and if they ever break a rule, they are severely punished for the
bother. While all students are expected to follow the rules, Black girls generally have the
hardest time. Black girls are forced to adhere to very specific guidelines and if they do a single
thing wrong then they are immediately treated as though they have behavior problems or are
criminals. In one case, a seven year old girl got into a small argument with her brother, eight
years old, the schools security guard called the police in fear that the seven year old would
become too much for the staff to handle and both children were escorted to the police station.
They were later charged with criminal behavior for disruption of public activity and the seven
year old was charged with assault of the boy, even though her brother said she didnt do anything
besides being a normal seven year old brat. (Morris, pg 3-5)

Although many admit that this is a rare case given their age, it is not abnormal for school
children to have issues of this nature. In Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in
Schools stories of students between ten and seventeen years old being escorted out of schools or
arrested is a large portion of the book. In most cases girls are forced into a bubble early on, once
theyve been labeled a difficult student there isnt much they can do. That bubble determines
how people treat them, who they can be friends with and how good they can do in classes. Nice
schools will often not accept students with multiple disciplinary action issues, without question
as to this problem(s) in question. Many private schools immediately throw out a student with
disciplinary action, on any level - elementary to graduate university programs. A black girl can
hardly be anything besides a hoodrat, ghetto girl or a good girl. Once labeled a ghetto they are
forced into particular schools, classes, social cliques and so forth.

In many cases teachers in these schools are tired and at wits end with students that they
are unable to help. Even students who really want to improve themselves, their situation or just
get back on track are practically abandoned in these schools. Many students just give up and
mess around during school, making it even harder for teachers to help those who want to be
helped. This forces many black girls out of schools, leaving them open to crime. These kids often
times are forced into crowds that will only cause a worse situation for them.
Dropouts have a difficult time finding work, housing, aid, etc. Many homes for kids
require the children to be in school or work to pay for their place. Many girls, even as young as
eleven, will come to recognize themselves as hos, prostitutes and nothing else. Sometimes
their introduction into prostitution communities will begin with family. ...and they, like, talked
about me. Told me Im stupid and never going to be anything. And I believed it, and so thats
when I went back to prostitution. explained Jennifer, a member of a talk therapy group run by
Monique Morris at a Juvenile Delinquency Center. (Morris 2016, pgs 104-105) Jennifer, was in
Juvie after continuously running away from her foster families, she later explained that when she
was a pre-teen and teen her various foster fathers would try to be her pimp or date her when
they learned of her sexual past. Dating being a term used by pimps who, rather than create a
work-like environment for the girls they manage, they create a social relationship. Dates are
rather like a boyfriend, theyre often more likely to have sex with their prostitutes, lend them out
to friends free of charge and create a less business, more play version of the traditional pimp.
(Morris 2016, pgs 102-109) Other cases start by rape or molestation, many girls are forced into
the lifestyle by feeling as though sex is the only way to be close to someone. After being
attacked, others might feel as though sex is only useful as a source of income. These issues
drastically raise the likelihood that a girl will be arrested and prosecuted for prostitution, lewd
acts, using/selling drugs or other illegal activity. These issues usually start in school, they may
have been pressured into sex by a teacher or authority figure.

More often than, though, its started by a system failing them, a system that never
believes in a black girl being able to do anything or be anything. This is drastically damaging for
us as a society because we lose this huge intellectual resource but more importantly it puts them
up for a life of illegal activity, drugs, prison and abuse. It is my opinion that we need to actively
try to help all students reach their potential by creating an environment that is safe and
welcoming for all. Black girls are especially in danger to falling through the cracks of the
educational system and as such we need to proactively help them.
Support them in schools, in their home life, and listen when they cry for help. Many bad girls
are simply trying to be noticed, they need someone to notice but we tune them out. I feel very
intrigued by this topic because it is one that most people dont notice, I feel that it needs to be
more known and aided in finding a solution. By pushing out students who drastically need that
stability in their life, school systems are only perpetuating the dangerous pipeline into prisons.
As well, this paper is only a small segment into the wide issue that is racism in the school
system, more needs to be researched. There are other factors into these issues that is only briefly
or not mentioned in this essay; issues like home life interference, social interference, peer
discriminatory and inadequate in-school aid for students with learning or social developmental
issues.

Citations
Rosenbloom, Joshua. Indentured Servitude in the Colonial
U.S. Economic History, eh.net/encyclopedia/indentured-servitude-in-the-colonial-u-s/.
Accessed 16 Sept. 2017.
The Election of 1876 & The End of Reconstruction,
www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1865-1897/1-reconstruction/4-1876election/.
Accessed 16 Sept. 2017.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Colorblindness in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Revised ed., New York City, NY, The New Press, 2010.
Morris, Monique W. Pushout: the criminalization of Black girls in schools. New York, The New
Press, 2016.
Morris, Monique W. Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First
Century. New York, The New Press, 2014