Rutgers-Camden Anti-Racism Book Study: So You Want to Talk About Race

The expanded use of zero-tolerance policies and security measures in schools has exponentially increased arrests and referrals to the juvenile courts and often for typical adolescent developmental behaviors and low-level misdemeanors. This is the first truly comprehensive assessment of the "school-to-prison pipeline," a term that refers to the increased risk for certain individuals, disproportionately from minority and impoverished communities, to end up ensnared in the criminal justice system because of excessively punitive disciplinary policies in schools.

This book offers a research and comparison-driven look at the school-to-prison pipeline, its racial dynamics, the connections to mass incarceration, and our flawed educational climate--and suggests practical remedies for change. How is racism perpetuated by the education system, particularly via the "school-to-prison pipeline?" How is the school to prison pipeline intrinsically connected to the larger context of the prison industrial complex as well as the extensive and ongoing criminalization of youth of color? This book uniquely describes the system of policies and practices that racialize criminalization by routing youth of color out of school and towards prison via the school-to-prison pipeline while simultaneously medicalizing white youth for comparable behaviors.