Rutgers Experts Put Spotlight On ‘Special Ed To Prison Pipeline’

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Rutgers-Newark experts are working to raise awareness of the link between educational disability classifications and incarceration. They call it the “special ed to prison pipeline.’’

While many are aware of the school to prison pipeline–where majority youth of color are funneled away from public education and into the juvenile justice system—they don’t always recognize that disability and special education play a significant part, says Lauren Shallish of Rutgers-Newark’s Department of Urban Education and founder of the first Disability Studies program at the university.

In close partnership with Rutgers’ NJ-STEP program, which helps incarcerated students obtain degrees, she and her colleagues are working to change that.

According to Shallish, at least one in every three youth arrested in the U.S. has a disability.

“An overwhelming majority of the prison population identifies as disabled or becomes impaired as a result of incarceration,’’ she said. “But there is less attention to the role disability plays because its under the guise of clinical judgment, which many believe to be right and true, but can in fact be very subjective.”

While incarcerated people who consider themselves legitimately disabled are denied services both inside and outside prison, others were erroneously classified during their K-12 years, a designation that is disproportionately applied to Black and brown children. The label can hinder them academically and steer them toward interactions with the juvenile justice system, which often leads to adult prison, Shallish said.

“It moves students away from their peer groups and promotes an overall negative experience that students internalize as their own biological or character deficit. It can create an irreparable sense of inferiority,’’ she said.

The disparity especially targets urban communities of color, where children classified as disabled are more likely to wind up in hyper-surveilled, under-resourced, and segregated learning environments, said Shallish.

Black children in New Jersey are 30 times more likely to be detained or incarcerated than their white peers, even as Black and white youth are charged with committing offenses at similar rates. Black children in the U.S. are nearly five times as likely to be confined as their white peers.

Many students who are classified as having a behavior disorder have experienced long-term exposure to trauma or lack of disability access. They are misclassified as having a complex impairment or placed in a more restrictive setting, which can stigmatize them and prevent them from succeeding academically, according to Shallish.

When given the opportunity, incarcerated students who have been classified as disabled often perform well in colleges and universities.

NJ-STEP’s incarcerated students, including those who were classified as having disabilities, have higher grade point averages, retention and graduation rates than their traditionally admitted peers.

Since the program began in 2011, a total of 57 have completed a BA degree in a New Jersey prison, and another 137 have completed a baccalaureate degree on a Rutgers campus. Some have gone on to complete advanced degrees and are emerging leaders across multiple industries, according to Christopher Agans, Executive Director of NJ-Step.

Shallish views this as proof that the right kinds of interventions and educational settings can nurture potential that has been thwarted.

Read the full story here, along with an account of an NJ-Step graduate who obtained a degree in Criminal Justice and is now an advocate and case worker for the City of Newark.

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