Jerry Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284876
- eISBN:
- 9780520960541
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Caught Up follows the lives of 50 Latina girls in “El Valle” Juvenile Detention Center and “Legacy” community school located 40 miles outside of Los Angeles, CA. Their path through these two ...
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Caught Up follows the lives of 50 Latina girls in “El Valle” Juvenile Detention Center and “Legacy” community school located 40 miles outside of Los Angeles, CA. Their path through these two institutions reveals the accelerated fusion of California schools and institutions of confinement. For example, the connection between both of these sites is a concerted effort between Legacy Community School and El Valle administrators to provide young people with wraparound services. These well-intentioned services are designed to provide youth with support at home, at school and in the actual detention center. However, I argue that wraparound services more closely resemble a phenomenon that I call wraparound incarceration, where students cannot escape the surveillance of formal detention despite leaving the actual detention center. For young people in Legacy school, returning to El Valle became an unavoidable consequence of wraparound services.Less
Caught Up follows the lives of 50 Latina girls in “El Valle” Juvenile Detention Center and “Legacy” community school located 40 miles outside of Los Angeles, CA. Their path through these two institutions reveals the accelerated fusion of California schools and institutions of confinement. For example, the connection between both of these sites is a concerted effort between Legacy Community School and El Valle administrators to provide young people with wraparound services. These well-intentioned services are designed to provide youth with support at home, at school and in the actual detention center. However, I argue that wraparound services more closely resemble a phenomenon that I call wraparound incarceration, where students cannot escape the surveillance of formal detention despite leaving the actual detention center. For young people in Legacy school, returning to El Valle became an unavoidable consequence of wraparound services.
Jerry Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284876
- eISBN:
- 9780520960541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284876.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The book opens with a description of the two key sites in my study: El Valle Juvenile Detention and Legacy community school. I describe the focus of the project and the questions I address. Here, I ...
More
The book opens with a description of the two key sites in my study: El Valle Juvenile Detention and Legacy community school. I describe the focus of the project and the questions I address. Here, I emphasize how these two institutions and wraparound services shape the pathways of my participants and how these young women navigate these interlocking entities. I then discuss why understanding these new educational and penal connections is important, especially the role they play in the lives of the Latina girls in my study. In this chapter I introduce the term wraparound incarceration, which I coin in the book. I draw on previous research on intersectionality, the school-to-prison pipeline, life course theory and work on gender and crime to situate my own intellectual contributions. The chapter ends with a discussion of the major components of the book, providing readers a “map” of what to expect in the text. Finally, I introduce my primary respondents who will lead off and end every chapter in this manuscript. This introduction as a whole reminds the readers of the importance of studying the processes that lead this growing group of girls into the juvenile justice system.Less
The book opens with a description of the two key sites in my study: El Valle Juvenile Detention and Legacy community school. I describe the focus of the project and the questions I address. Here, I emphasize how these two institutions and wraparound services shape the pathways of my participants and how these young women navigate these interlocking entities. I then discuss why understanding these new educational and penal connections is important, especially the role they play in the lives of the Latina girls in my study. In this chapter I introduce the term wraparound incarceration, which I coin in the book. I draw on previous research on intersectionality, the school-to-prison pipeline, life course theory and work on gender and crime to situate my own intellectual contributions. The chapter ends with a discussion of the major components of the book, providing readers a “map” of what to expect in the text. Finally, I introduce my primary respondents who will lead off and end every chapter in this manuscript. This introduction as a whole reminds the readers of the importance of studying the processes that lead this growing group of girls into the juvenile justice system.
Jerry Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284876
- eISBN:
- 9780520960541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284876.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Legacy is California’s newest version of “continuation” or alternative education. This school is housed in a World War II army barrack. Here, kids are searched, made to walk through metal detectors, ...
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Legacy is California’s newest version of “continuation” or alternative education. This school is housed in a World War II army barrack. Here, kids are searched, made to walk through metal detectors, placed on formal or informal probation, and subjected to perpetual contact with criminal justice agents. In this school we find the Recuperation Class. This class is a self-contained program for youth with “drug dependence and other behavioral issues.” Unlike the rest of the school, the local probation department directly funds this classroom. In this unique setting, the teacher provides instruction as the probation agent walks around, conducts random drug tests on students, questions youth about their behavior outside of school, and/or takes them directly to detention. Legacy school officials have granted this criminal justice agency unfettered access to their students in return for financial support. While the probation department refers to this well-intentioned process as providing wraparound services to students, I argue that this process resembles “wraparound incarceration” where students cannot escape the formal surveillance of institutions of confinement. In this institution, young women move back and forth between this school and secure detention.Less
Legacy is California’s newest version of “continuation” or alternative education. This school is housed in a World War II army barrack. Here, kids are searched, made to walk through metal detectors, placed on formal or informal probation, and subjected to perpetual contact with criminal justice agents. In this school we find the Recuperation Class. This class is a self-contained program for youth with “drug dependence and other behavioral issues.” Unlike the rest of the school, the local probation department directly funds this classroom. In this unique setting, the teacher provides instruction as the probation agent walks around, conducts random drug tests on students, questions youth about their behavior outside of school, and/or takes them directly to detention. Legacy school officials have granted this criminal justice agency unfettered access to their students in return for financial support. While the probation department refers to this well-intentioned process as providing wraparound services to students, I argue that this process resembles “wraparound incarceration” where students cannot escape the formal surveillance of institutions of confinement. In this institution, young women move back and forth between this school and secure detention.
Jerry Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284876
- eISBN:
- 9780520960541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284876.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
In this chapter, I demonstrate how the treatment girls received at their “regular” schools puts them in situations that landed them back in detention. The challenges of attending school were ...
More
In this chapter, I demonstrate how the treatment girls received at their “regular” schools puts them in situations that landed them back in detention. The challenges of attending school were exacerbated by the lack of positive support girls received from wraparound services once they left Legacy Community School. In fact, the little wraparound support they did receive, like probation supervision and electronic monitoring, actually made them targets for mistreatment at the hands of their peers and educational staff alike. Along with this, the girls were also stigmatized because of the time they spent at Legacy Community School and in El Valle Juvenile Detention Center. In Sandra’s case, those challenges proved too great, and she eventually ended up back in El Valle. Like at home, in detention, and at Legacy, the girls in my study continued to experience interpersonal violence at the hands of their peers, and they received little protection from school or criminal justice officials. Instead, they experienced institutional harassment and targeting shaped by administrators’ gendered and racialized perceptions of these young Latinas as gang members and criminals.Less
In this chapter, I demonstrate how the treatment girls received at their “regular” schools puts them in situations that landed them back in detention. The challenges of attending school were exacerbated by the lack of positive support girls received from wraparound services once they left Legacy Community School. In fact, the little wraparound support they did receive, like probation supervision and electronic monitoring, actually made them targets for mistreatment at the hands of their peers and educational staff alike. Along with this, the girls were also stigmatized because of the time they spent at Legacy Community School and in El Valle Juvenile Detention Center. In Sandra’s case, those challenges proved too great, and she eventually ended up back in El Valle. Like at home, in detention, and at Legacy, the girls in my study continued to experience interpersonal violence at the hands of their peers, and they received little protection from school or criminal justice officials. Instead, they experienced institutional harassment and targeting shaped by administrators’ gendered and racialized perceptions of these young Latinas as gang members and criminals.
Jerry Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284876
- eISBN:
- 9780520960541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284876.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The conclusion revisits the major themes of book. It also highlights the larger implications of these findings for young people in the United States. New partnerships between education and penal ...
More
The conclusion revisits the major themes of book. It also highlights the larger implications of these findings for young people in the United States. New partnerships between education and penal facilities and wraparound services as a whole do not help young people stay away from the criminal justice system. Despite the positive intentions of these new services, law enforcement and education administrators inadvertently undermine their goal of helping youth by exposing them to further criminalization. Instead these new services break down social bonds between adults, institutional actors, and other young people that would help the girls in my study begin a more positive life-course. This is reflected in their failed attempts to finish probation, return to traditional school and leave the criminal justice system altogether. I revisit this clear disconnect between the well-intentioned goals of education and corrections administrators with negative outcomes young women must negotiate as they try, and often fail, to stay out of secure detention. I also remind the reader how this process has a set of challenges that are unique to Latinas’ intersecting identities.Less
The conclusion revisits the major themes of book. It also highlights the larger implications of these findings for young people in the United States. New partnerships between education and penal facilities and wraparound services as a whole do not help young people stay away from the criminal justice system. Despite the positive intentions of these new services, law enforcement and education administrators inadvertently undermine their goal of helping youth by exposing them to further criminalization. Instead these new services break down social bonds between adults, institutional actors, and other young people that would help the girls in my study begin a more positive life-course. This is reflected in their failed attempts to finish probation, return to traditional school and leave the criminal justice system altogether. I revisit this clear disconnect between the well-intentioned goals of education and corrections administrators with negative outcomes young women must negotiate as they try, and often fail, to stay out of secure detention. I also remind the reader how this process has a set of challenges that are unique to Latinas’ intersecting identities.
