THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONTEXT - Feature - APRIL 2021 - Black Youth in Foster Care and the School-Prison Nexus

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

April 2021 feature examines how policing and racial bias in public schools intersect with foster care placement to shape outcomes for Black youth, centering the 2015 Spring Valley High School case involving Shakara and Ben Fields as a catalyst for national discussion. It argues congregate care and related practices function as part of a “shadow carceral state,” intensifying hyper-surveillance, hyper-punishment, and labeling. It highlights risks tied to congregate care and offers four research recommendations to interrogate race and carceral logics across the school-foster care-prison nexus.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Feature: The Community College Context - April 2021

Black Youth in Foster Care and the School-Prison Nexus

Future Directions for Research

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONTEXT Feature APRIL 2021 Black Youth in Foster Care and the School-Prison Nexus By Dr. Royel Johnson FEATURE: THE C OMMUNITY C OLLE GE C ONTEXT- APRIL 2021 In October of 2015 a disturbing video surfaced of a white male school resource officer, Ben Fields, brutally slamming a 16-year-old Black girl, Shakara, to the ground at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina. FEATURE: THE C OMMUNITY C OLLE GE C ONTEXT- APRIL 2021 F ields, a deputy sheriff assigned to the are recommended for and subsequently placed in school, was called to the classroom after congregate care facilities, which provide 24-hour Shakara refused to put her phone away therapeutic care and treatment for those who and leave the room at her teacher’s request. have been identified as having behavioral and Deputy Fields is recorded on camera telling mental health needs (Palmer et al. , 2020) . Despite Shakara, “Either you’re coming with me or I’ll what is known from research about the role of make you.” Moments later, the veteran officer racial bias in the overidentification of Black youthis observed violently grabbing, flipping, and with disabilities (Losen et al. , 2014), children/ dragging Shakara across the room as her peers youth in foster care generally lack the advocacy watched. This viral video was instrumental in of family members and other supportive adults fostering national conversations that is needed to challenge such about policing in public schools I argue that (mis)classifications. In this way, itetheovUer.Sre.p anresnitstaticoonmpofl icitBylaci nk the foster wineaseectiont heThsacthios, oBl-lpraciskonyo nuui sn students in the school-prison care system, foster care are funneled out of ntxeus“w(Leobveo,f 20p1u6ni),tivreeferthrrinegadsto and more traintitionacongl rsecghatoeol csaeretti ngsfaciliatine, which capture the historic, specifically which often mirror the juvenilesyofstemtheiicn,tanermctiuoltifnsaceoftededunaturecation congregate dtetentiechnoloongsies andofem pslouyrveisllimaniclaer, and incarceration” (Meiners, 2007 care facilities, punishment, and labeling. p. 32) . are indeed Beckett and Murakawa’s (2012) While the video is jarring, there part and notion of the shadow carceral isfreonequenitmlyportanbeent lefttaoilutthatof htse parcel to the stateconsidoeffrienrsgt aheursoelfeuolf ehiulrdisticwelffaorre dozens of stories written about enhancement services in the extension of carceraltShperinuncg VoalnlsceyioHniagbhleSc oituolatiTonhat iast, ofcarceral state powestate refersr.tTohtseoywsi cnarcewhircl Shakara is among the 97,000 Black state power. non-criminal institutions have youth who are disproportionately acquired the capacity to impose represented in foster care—a system that is touted as a protective intervention for those who have been subjected to abuse and neglect (Goldman, 2003; Johnson, 2019) . When minor disciplinary infractions at school are criminalized among Black children/youth in foster care, as was the case for Shakara, these youth are often labeled as behaviorally or emotionally unfit to bein a traditional school setting. Black children/youth in foster care are disproportionately represented among those who sanctions that mirror the coercive practices of penal facilities. I argue that the foster care system, and more specifically congregate care facilities, are indeed part and parcel to the enhancement of carceral state power. This is reflected not only in their physical composition, but also within their culture (e.g. , practices, policies, pedagogies), which subjects mostly Black children/youth to hyper-surveillance, hyper-punishment, and hyper-labeling—what Annamma (2018) refers to as the “pedagogy of pathologization” (p. 13) . FEATURE: THE C OMMUNITY C OLLE GE C ONTEXT- APRIL 2021 That research has consistently linked placement in congregate care to elevated risks of dropping out of high school, experiences with physical and sexual

FAQs

What role did the 2015 Spring Valley High School incident play in shaping public conversations?

A viral video of a school resource officer assaulting a 16-year-old Black girl was instrumental in fostering national conversations about policing in public schools and the need to challenge (mis)classifications.

How does the feature describe the relationship between foster care and the carceral state?

It argues the foster care system, especially congregate care facilities, is part and parcel of enhancing carceral state power through physical practices and a culture of hyper-surveillance, hyper-punishment, and hyper-labeling.

What are the recommendations for future research highlighted in the feature?

The feature recommends centering race as a primary analytic axis, using participatory research designs to reduce power asymmetries, and expanding research to account for how carceral logics permeate intersecting marginalizing systems affecting Black youth in foster care.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel