Overview
Public schools across the nation have turned to the criminal justice system as a gold standard of discipline. As public schools and offices of justice have become collaborators in punishment, rates of African American suspension and expulsion have soared, dropout rates have accelerated, and prison populations have exploded. Nowhere, perhaps, has the War on Crime been more influential in broadening racialized academic and socioeconomic disparity than in New Orleans, Louisiana, where in 2002 the criminal sheriff opened his own public school at the Orleans Parish Prison. “The Prison School,” as locals called it, enrolled low-income African American boys who had been removed from regular public schools because of nonviolent disciplinary offenses, such as tardiness and insubordination. By examining this school in the local and national context, Lizbet Simmons shows how young black males are in the liminal state of losing educational affiliation while being caught in the net of correctional control. In The Prison School, she asks how schools and prisons became so intertwined. What does this mean for students, communities, and a democratic society? And how do we unravel the ties that bind the racialized realities of school failure and mass incarceration?
Full Product Details
Author: Lizbet Simmons
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.30cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.318kg
ISBN: 9780520281462
ISBN 10: 0520281462
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 22 November 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
The Prison School is a disturbing and important book. New York Journal of Books
Simmons has produced a terrific book, one that is beautifully written, engaging, and offers a nice blend of data and literature. . . an important and accessible book that should be read by those concerned about the increasing criminalization of American schools. * Journal of Criminal Justice Education * In closing, The Prison School disrupts what have become common sense understandings of the connection between schools and the criminal justice system by exposing both the push and pull factors that shape the daily experiences of many students of color. . . [the book] pushes the reader to confront and question the state of our schools, creating necessary space in which to imagine a world otherwise. * Crime, Media, Culture * The Prison School is a disturbing and important book. * New York Journal of Books *
Author Information
Lizbet Simmons is a sociologist living in Los Angeles.
