University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 Funneled Into Prison: Race And Behavior Modification tA A Mississippi Alternative School Daniela Alexandria Griffin University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Griffin, Daniela Alexandria, unneled"F Into Prison: Race And Behavior Modification At A Mississippi Alternative School" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 845. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/845 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FUNNELED INTO PRISON: RACE AND BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION AT A MISSISSIPPI ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology The University of Mississippi by DANIELA ALEXANDRIA GRIFFIN August 2016 1 Copyright © by Daniela Alexandria Griffin 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT African American youth are 3.5 times more likely than their white counterparts to be expelled from traditional public schools and sent to an alternative school—an exclusionary disciplinary setting focused on behavior modification. Yet how administrators and faculty supervise students’ behavioral achievement in these settings is seldom examined. This research investigates how faculty and administrators define and implement a behavior modification program at Richmond Learning Center, an alternative education setting in Mississippi, and places African American boys as young as 12 years old on a path to prison.