Counseling Strategies to Disrupt the School-Prison Nexus

Introduction

It is well documented that school disciplinary policies disproportionately impact children of color and that these practices retraumatize youth and contribute to the criminalization of children (Department of Education and Office for Civil Rights, 2017; Dutil, 2020; Muñiz, 2021; Nellis, 2016; Novak, 2019). They continue to experience explicit discrimination through the placing of Black students with disabilities into less inclusive environments in educational settings than their White counterparts (White et al., 2019). This segregation is seen within special education classrooms, within the school as a whole, and within the communities that these school are located, reducing access to education and resources and increasing isolation, seclusion, and stigmatization (White et al., 2019). The criminalization of youth of color is also demonstrated when they are subjected to juvenile facilities and adult justice systems whilst they are still juveniles; experiences not reported by their White counterparts (Blankenship et al., 2018). Additionally, racism and bias in educational and mental health systems has historically interpreted race-based traumatic stress and resistance against racism as an individual problem of behavior conduct (Atkins-Loria et al., 2015). Atkins-Loria and colleagues (2015) noted one example of this pathologizing interpretation of race-based trauma includes disproportionate conduct disorder diagnoses, which leads to the modern colonization and criminalization of youth of color.

Recognition of the school-prison nexus has resulted in the recommendation of practices to disrupt inequities in the school system. Restorative justice practices are one practice recommended for use within schools to mitigate racial disparity in school disciplinary practices as a move away from punitive punishment and towards understanding and healing (Schiff, 2018), as well as implementation of non-pathologizing approach to diagnosing race-based traumatic stress (Carter, 1990; Carter et al., 2019). Researchers also suggest a model of optimal development and nurturing for all professionals that are involved with youth (Basile et al., 2019; Graham et al., 2017) as well as understanding of personal bias (Mcneal, 2014; Ratts et al., 2016) and identifying and elevating community strengths (Vera & Speight, 2003). Such approaches are consistent with the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies described by Ratts and colleagues (2016).

This chapter will firstly provide a comprehensive overview of how racist systems interconnect and result in criminalization and incarceration for youth of color. Topics covered include racism in school settings and the pathologizing of racial trauma and will focus on the role of helping professionals in the school-prison nexus and the harm that is being done when services are provided in a culturally unaware and insensitive manner. The chapter will then move to explore strategies that counselors can utilize to disrupt the harmful outcomes of the school-prison nexus previously described. These strategies include confronting and challenging personal biases, anti-racist counselor education, broaching, culturally aware diagnostic processes, restorative practices, and community social justice advocacy. Counselors must integrate these strategies into a systemic anti-racist, strength-based approach to their work to actively work against harmful structures that make up the school-prison nexus.