Racial Justice NOW! DMV Completes Three Successful Community Conversations addressing the Montgomery County Office of Legislative Oversight Report on School to Prison Pipeline
In December of 2023, Racial Justice NOW! DMV began a community conversation series to inform and hear from the community about the June 2023 report by the Montgomery County Maryland Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO), “Addressing Racial Inequity in the School to Prison Pipeline.”
The events attracted crowds of students, parents, community members as well as State Representative Gabriel AceVero, Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink and Will Jawando, Board of Education candidates, Montgomery County Public Schools personnel, representatives from the Black and Brown Coalition, the Street Outreach Network, the Montgomery County Conflict Resolution Center, the African Health Coalition and other local organizations.
Racial Justice NOW! DMV in collaboration with the Montgomery County Collaboration Council hosted the third and final community conversation Saturday February 24th at the Rockville Library. At each community conversation, Dr. Elaine Bonner-Tompkins, presented the OLO report’s findings followed by responding to questions about the report.
Many community members are not aware of the reality of the formal “School to Prison Pipeline” and learn that it refers to the increased risk that students suspended, expelled, and arrested in schools face for entering the juvenile and adult justice systems. Dr. Bonner-Tompkins shared with event participants the following four major findings from the OLO report:
1) The magnitude of the School to Prison Pipeline has remained the same on most school measures but has declined significantly for referrals to juvenile services, diversion programs, and delinquency cases.
2) Racial disparities in the School to Prison Pipeline persist with Black children being twice as likely to be suspended from school or referred to juvenile services compared to their share of student enrollment.
3) Racial inequities in schooling and policing foster racial disparities in the Pipeline.
4) Structural approaches targeting systems and centering BIPOC stakeholders offer the greatest promise for reversing racial inequity in the Pipeline.
The School to Prison Pipeline and racial disparities in juvenile and adult criminal justice systems are not unique to Montgomery County. According to the Justice Policy Institute, more than 70 percent of all people in Maryland’s prisons and almost 80 percent of those serving at least 10 years are Black.
Community members were able to share comments, recommendations, their perspectives and provide their input. Racial Justice NOW! DMV has been a member of the R.E.D. (Racial Ethnic Disparities) Committee in collaboration with the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for over three years and continues to work to end the school to prison pipeline.
Racial Justice NOW! is an eleven-year-old organization that envisions a world free of structural anti-Black racism in education and beyond. RJN! partners with and organizes across generations of impacted youth, parents, and communities to build and wield peoplepower at the grassroots to advance human rights by challenging systemic anti-Black racism, the criminalization of Black families, and discriminatory policies in education and beyond.
