By Cara McClellan with data analysis by Megan Gall

Across the country, large numbers of Black students are pushed out of the classroom and into the juvenile or criminal justice system through the school-to-prison pipeline. National data on school-based arrests and referrals to law enforcement reveals that Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for harsh punishment. Moreover, national data shows that Black girls are the fastest-growing demographic affected by school discipline, arrests, and referrals to the juvenile justice system. For Black girls, the pathways to the juvenile justice system disproportionately involve unaddressed social-emotional needs at school. Despite this reality, students’ educational experiences are often left out of conversations about juvenile or criminal justice reform—in particular, the experiences of Black girls in schools. Baltimore is beginning a substantial effort to reform policing and its criminal justice system. Still, the experiences of Black girls in Baltimore City Public School System (“BCPSS”)—and the pathways that lead to their involvement with the justice systems—have been largely overlooked in this process.

New York: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Thurgood Marshall Institute, 2024. 48p.

By Tony Fabelo, Michael D. Thompson, Martha Plotkin, Dottie Carmichael, Miner P. Marchbanks III, and Eric A. Booth

This report describes the results of an extraordinary analysis of millions of school and juvenile justice records in Texas. It was conducted to improve policymakers’ understanding of who is suspended and expelled from public secondary schools, and the impact of those removals on students’ academic performance and juvenile justice system involvement. Like other states, school suspensions—and, to a lesser degree, expulsions—have become relatively common in Texas. For this reason and because Texas has the second largest public school system in the nation (where nonwhite children make up nearly two-thirds of the student population), this study’s findings have significance for—and relevance to—states across the country. Several aspects of the study make it groundbreaking. First, the research team did not rely on a sample of students, but instead examined individual school records and school campus data pertaining to all seventh-grade public school students in Texas in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Second, the analysis of each grade’s student records covered at least a six-year period, creating a statewide longitudinal study. Third, access to the state juvenile justice database allowed the researchers to learn about the school disciplinary history of youth who had juvenile records. Fourth, the study group size and rich datasets from the education and juvenile justice systems made it possible to conduct multivariate analyses. Using this approach, the researchers could control for more than 80 variables, effectively isolating the impact that independent factors had on the likelihood of a student’s being suspended and expelled, and on the relationship between these disciplinary actions and a student’s academic performance or juvenile justice involvement.

New York: The Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2011. 124p.

By Jerome G. Miller.

Last One over the Wall is an analytical and autobiographical account of Jerome G. Miller’s tenure as head of the Massachusetts juvenile justice system, during which he undertook one of the most daring and drastic steps in recent juvenile justice history—he closed reformatories and returned offenders to community supervision and treatment by private schools and youth agencies. Filled with insights into juvenile and adult behavior in prison and outside, Miller’s account provides a rare opportunity to view our juvenile justice system as a whole, including all the politics, economics, and social biases that come with it. In a new preface for this edition, the author reflects on his decision of seven years ago and the lessons learned from it.

Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1998. 279p.

By Adele Chynoweth orcid

A History of Children in a Queensland Mental Asylum. Series: Aboriginal History Monographs. Goodna Girls tells the story of children incarcerated in Wolston Park Hospital, an adult psychiatric facility in Queensland, Australia. It contains the personal testimonies of women who relate—in their own no-holds-barred style and often with irreverent humour—how they, as children, ended up in Wolston Park and how this affected their adult lives. The accounts of hospital staff who witnessed the effects of this heinous policy and spoke out are also included.

Canberra. ANU Press (2020).