Unraveling the School Punitive Web: The School-to-Prison Pipeline in the Context of the Gendered Shadow Carceral State

Education researchers and policymakers popularized the school-to-prison pipeline metaphor to understand the connection between school failure and youth incarceration in the United States. However, the metaphor has been criticized for simplifying schools role in creating and enlarging the carceral state. Based on Latina girls experiences attending a community day school in California, this study shows how alternative education programs facilitate the annexation of schools within the criminal justice system, enclosing Latina girls in a gendered web of punitive threads. Alternative education and its programs are best understood as shadow carceral innovations that expand the carceral state beyond prison walls.