Date of Award

5-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Charlene Fletcher

Second Advisor

Suneeta Kercood

Abstract

Following World War II, reformers and researchers in the United States debated how to properly rehabilitate so-called juvenile delinquents. Central to this debate was the role education played in children's intellectual and moral development. New York City underwent significant changes during this discourse, enacting new disciplinary policies in public schools and opening Spofford Juvenile Detention Center, now regarded as one of the greatest failures of juvenile justice in American history. Though education has long been considered a fundamental avenue to lift individuals from poverty, its absence has also been weaponized by schools as a disciplinary technique. In what has become known as the school-to-prison pipeline, schools have used the denial of education—through in and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions—to reprimand students for inappropriate behaviors. By examining the role of education in New York City’s school-to-prison pipeline and youth detention centers, using Spofford as a case study, it is clear that education has a powerful role in rehabilitating youth offenders, though there have been many obstacles in its implementation. This historical review asserts that from 1960-2000, the school-to-prison pipeline in New York City systematically denied children—especially Black and Latino youth—quality education by criminalizing their behavior, removing them from school environments, and placing them at higher risk of incarceration. This punitive cycle not only undermined their educational development but also perpetuated a cycle of poverty and criminality by stripping them of tools necessary for academic and social mobility. By exploring this topic, the impact of education on New York City’s “at-risk” and incarcerated children, particularly on a disproportionately minority population, can be assessed to identify ways classrooms in both public schools and detention centers must be amended. Furthermore, these conclusions challenge the notion that “bad” kids deserve to be denied education as punishment—a central theme in the school-to-prison pipeline evident in the modern American classroom.

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