ABSTRACT
This chapter provides schools' Zero Tolerance policies as part of the crime control paradigm that theorizes and enacts a particular kind of social order that maintains iterations of racial hierarchy. It describes a case that the underpinning logic of the neo-liberal market economy in the United States has further influenced the political environment that continues to inscribe criminality on communities of color. These policy practices subsume and consume youth into a system that is punitive not only to their present infractions but leads to a longer and more permanent punishment economy. The relationship between urban public schools and the criminal justice system was fostered by a variety of forces and factors that systematically excluded black populations from participation in economic and social development. The economization of incarceration has further influenced a political environment where crime control is the reigning logic of governance of the urban poor.
