Reversing the Pipeline to Prison in Texas: How to Ensure Safe Schools AND Safe Students

By Alycia Castillo, Jemima Abalogu and Lindsey Linder

Today in Texas schools, students at every grade level face disciplinary methods that can land them behind bars. School administrations have implemented punitive “zero tolerance” policies and have increased on-campus policing in response to various incidents over past decades; this has led to negative, unintended consequences and has pushed many students — particularly those most vulnerable — out of the classroom, where they can be subject to criminalization. But as the spotlight has shown more harshly on youth incarceration and the harm to children and their families, measures to reverse the “school-to-prison pipeline” are being piloted and implemented throughout Texas to ensure that, in efforts to create safe schools, we also have safe students who can reach their full potential. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition talked to school discipline experts and students across the state to learn more about disciplinary practices and restorative justice, which addresses student misbehavior and holds them accountable in a safe, non-court setting, leading to better outcomes for students, victims, schools, and communities. Throughout this report, insights from experts and students shed additional light on the need for alternatives to harsh discipline, and they ultimately provide hope that Texas can reverse the school-to-prison pipeline.

Austin, TX: The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, 2020. 35p.