Reimagining the School to Prison Pipeline

It is quite easy to advocate for prison reform, for prison abolition, for eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline, and for a world without cages and borders, without stopping to think about how all of these things actually exist within the reality of American society. On November 12th, Williams’ prison abolitionist group Converging Worlds hosted a discussion with visiting professor Kelsey Jones to talk about defining and reimagining the school-to-prison pipeline. What is a “school”? What is a “prison”? How do these institutions achieve, or fail to achieve, the things they set out to do? How do we all exist within the pipeline, and what is our responsibility to dissolving it? These are all questions that I, and a group of other Williams students, aimed to answer with the help of Professor Jones’s thoughtful guidance last Thursday evening. 

An important thing to note is that Professor Jones began the workshop with a minute-long meditation and a free-write so that we as students were able to set intentions for ourselves and for other individuals within our virtual discussion space. I think this initial step before jumping into conversation was very important. Within the purple bubble of our lovely Williams College, it is incredibly easy to jump into conversations about topics that a lot of us have the privilege of not being deeply affected by. By actively encouraging students to reflect upon their intentions in joining this discussion, Professor Jones managed to increase the overall productivity of the workshop. 

The “school,” the “prison,” and the “pipeline” all have very traditional definitions, but in our individual breakout rooms, Professor Jones wanted us to define these words in a way that works for us and for our goals of prison abolition. The conversation I had with the other folks in my breakout room was extremely enlightening. One of my group members mentioned that, just like a prison, a school is more than the individual institution; schools are a part of a larger system in the same way that a singular prison is a part of the larger American carceral system. Therefore, addressing the issues faced by adolescents in school that lead them into the prison pipeline is something that is difficult to do on a case-by-case basis; it is a societal issue. Furthermore, there are so many parallels between a school and a prison. Students do not only go to school to learn; they go to school to be socialized, and their well-being and safety is supposed to be prioritized within the confines of said institution. In a similar fashion, prison is supposed to shape an individual for the better in preparation for their return to society, even though in reality, the carceral system falls short of fulfilling this objective. 

However, the fact of the matter is that schools often fall short of fulfilling their goals as well, and this often goes ignored because of the way that people idealize the American education system. There are students who will never feel safe at school, whether it is because of their race, their socioeconomic status, their sexuality, or other contributing factors. Within an educational institution, there are intimidating authority figures in the same way there are intimidating authority figures in a prison. Students go to school to learn, but oftentimes, what they are really learning is compliance. What they are actually learning, according to Professor Jones, is how to be the ideal person for the person in front of them, and what that often requires is the sequestration of one’s own identity. In making this point, Professor Jones drew another haunting parallel between the education system and the carceral system: schools and prisons are one of the few places in which individuals are told to get in line, to be quiet, to put their hands behind their backs. 

The school-to-prison pipeline is not its own separate entity. It is not a thing to be feared only by specific groups of minorities. In our discussion, Professor Jones declared that we are all in the school-to-prison pipeline; it is ingrained into the foundation of American society. Instead of referring to the school-to-prison pipeline as a pipeline, Professor Jones chose to redefine it as the Penrose staircase, or the impossible staircase. Defining the school-to-prison pipeline as the Penrose staircase is used to show that we are all locked into the pipeline; each system leads into the other continuously, without escape. Now, that might seem depressing, but what does that actually mean for our activism? What does it mean for the abolitionist work we must do? 

Near the end of the discussion, Professor Jones stated that it is harder to advocate and work for something if we think we are only doing it for someone else. By defining the school-to-prison pipeline as circular, by defining it as this Penrose staircase that we are all stuck climbing, the issue grows greater in scope. It is not just about the liberation of other people but about our own liberation as well. When our freedom is at stake, does that not make us more likely to fight? Will people become more likely to advocate for abolition instead of meager reform if they see themselves as being affected as well? Professor Jones made a very powerful point when talking about how self-implication is required for some people’s activism. Nevertheless, the school-to-prison pipeline, or the school-to-prison Penrose staircase, does affect the entirety of our society, even if it is not in equal amounts, and therefore the fight for abolition calls for help from all of us.