Advanced Essay #4

My goals for this essay was to show how School-Prison-Pipeline is a form of violence even though children put themselves in these situations. This essay made me explore more about the School-Prison-Pipeline because I was limited on knowledge about the system as a total, but through this essay, it helped me understand the situation better. I think that this is something I am pleased to end the 3rd quarter strong with.

Essay:

Let Us Graduate When we come across violence or unjust acts, we want them to be corrected. It is not fair to the society or personally being yourself experiencing the violence. Sometimes trying to fix an issue of violence leads to missed opportunities for ones who want to become right with the system and to become successful. We as humans are always content when unjust actions are taken care of, but we never think of the aftermath with someone’s life after the action. In this essay specifically, I want to discuss the topic of School to Prison Pipeline. I find that this is a form of violence to children because after they serve their time, there is really no life for them after juvenile detention or jail.

School to Prison Pipeline is an issue that is not really talked about or something that the society is not really concerned about. According to the information found from the Truthloader show podcasted on Youtube it stated: “ Every year in the United States, an estimated 250,000 children under the age of 18 are tried, sentenced or imprisoned as adults. And of these, around 100,000 actually end up in adult jails and prisons, with many spending time in solitary confinement.” When I read this I automatically thought how are kids learning when they are behind bars? This pondered my mind for a while. I began to realize that they are not having any system of education being brought to them while they are imprisoned. With kids being behind bars and not in school, it labels them as being dropouts from school. After kids are finished serving their time and learned the lesson of committing a violent act, they are back into society. They will come back with no sense of education, but only how to survive in jail which is not their life anymore. With children being dropouts and missing out on their education at the given time, it is harder for them to want to go back to school and gain their education after being put out of school at the designated time they should have graduated. I personally believe that this is something society needs to pay closer attention to knowing that us children are the future for the world and the society we live in. If we are behind bars and do not gain an education, what is going to happen to the world and the jobs that are ran? I would fathom to believe that they will not be ran or barely in existence because children will be unemployed due to not having the minimum of at least a high school diploma. Isn’t this considered more violence than rather letting them gain their education? It is understood that when someone commits a crime or does something unjust to the society, their actions should definitely be handled, but we never fully think about what affects it has on the person who wants to be successful children because that is always on our minds.

This situation has been going on for over 10 years and it has not been getting better, but instead it has been getting worse. I believe that the larger idea of this act is simply that this s a form of violence. To make this more direct, it is a form of violence because instances like this are keeping children away from their education while they are still young. Even though I do believe there should be punishments for actions that are not just, I think that authorities should be more sensitive with children because after they serve their time they have so much to live for. This would conclude to less poverty rates and more kids staying in school to gain higher education to be successful in the world. This will give the world a sense of ease when children develop as young adults and take on jobs that were profound by people who believe they are the only ones who can work in the field they work in. If us children are not the future generation than who is?

Works Cited

Truthloader. “The US Throws 100,000 Children into Adult Jails and Prisons Every Year - Truthloader.” YouTube. YouTube, 17 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAJFWYFPgH0.

“The School-to-Prison Pipeline.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 May 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/opinion/new-york-citys-school-to-prison-pipeline.html.

Dillon, Sam. “Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Dropouts.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Oct. 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/education/09dropout.html.

Schlosser, Eric. “The Prison-Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 Dec. 1998. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/.