Academic Achievement and Prison Incarceration Rates
Analyzing the School-to-Prison Pipeline
• Stand For Children looked at data compiled by the Justice Atlas of Sentencing and
Correction (www.justiceatlas.org) which lists the zip code of the last address
associated with inmates incarcerated within Texas state prisons. It also lists the
percent of residents in that zip code making $25,000 or less in household income.
• We then looked specifically at the Dallas County zip codes with the largest number of
75228
Texas prison inmates as of the latest information date they surveyed (2008).
75212

75227
• We then looked at the largest comprehensive high schools within each
of those zip
75215
75211
codes on the Texas Education Agency (“TEA”) website
(http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/
75203
perfreport/aeis/2011/campus.srch.html) for the latest school year available
75217 (2010-11).
75216

• From that TEA data, we were able to note the numbers of students who started ninth
75241
75232
grade at each campus four year earlier who (i) failed to
graduate; (ii) graduated but
did not achieve a college ready entrance exam score on either the SAT or ACT; or (iii)
graduated college ready.

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Analyzing the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Key Takeaways
•

The ten zip codes analyzed representing the last address of the largest number of Texas prison inmates from Dallas
County contained over 3,100 prisoners representing an annual cost to the state of $137 million, or $44,000/inmate.

•

This compares to the annual cost to publicly educate a student in Texas of below $10,000.

•

The largest high schools within each of these zip codes (10 in total) graduated 26 students in 2011 who were deemed
college-ready, representing <1% of an original 9th grade cohort four years earlier totaling roughly 3,000 students.
75228

•

860 students from this original 3,000 student 9th grade cohort (29%) failed
75212 to graduate. Another 2,100 students (70%)
graduated but were not deemed college-ready.
75227
75211

75215
75203

•

It is clear that the failure to adequately educate our children is leading directly to substantially higher incarceration rates.
75217
While it represents a substantial cost to taxpayers, more importantly it is a tragic waste
of
each
child’s
life potential.
75216

•

It is also clear that all of this blame cannot and should not be placed solely at the feet
of our educators. Given the
75241
75232
levels of poverty in each of these neighborhoods, these children face many, many challenges not faced by students in
more affluent regions of our city. Solving this issue requires a collective effort on all fronts, including the urgent need to
direct additional resources to these schools and neighborhoods while concurrently rebuilding the leadership and
teaching capacity within these ten high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.

Sources: Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Correction
TEA AEIS Data for 2011 - Failed to Graduate and No./Pct. of Graduates With College Entrance Exam Score Deemed College-Ready by SAT/ACT in 2010

4

County Zip Codes with Highest Population of TX Prison Inmates

High Correlation with Low College Readiness Rates
DISD High Schools Serving
Zip Code and No./Pct.
College Ready in 2010

Zip
Code

No. of
Inmates

Annual $
Cost to
State
(Millions)

% HH
Income
Under
$25K

High
School

75216

681

$28.1

41.4%

SOC

75217

465

$19.1

32.3%

75215

374

$16.3

57.8%

75241

321

$14.2

33.5%

Samuell
Spruce
Lincoln
Madison
Hutchins

Texas Prison Population Count Per Inmate’s Last Zip Code
Dallas County

#"Grads" %"Grads"
College" College"
Ready Ready
2

1%

2

1%

3

1%

N/A

N/A

75228
75212
75227

75228

260

$13.2

28.6%

Adams

9

3%

75212

280

$11.2

48.3%

Pinkston

1

1%

75211

260

$11.1

31.1%

Molina

1

0%

75232

198

$10.9

23.3%

Carter

6

3%

75224

131

$7.0

30.7%

SOC
Carter

75203

132

$6.0

49.3%

Adamson

3,102

$137.1
(Avg. Cost = $44,000/Inmate)

75215
75203

75211

75217
75216

75232

75241

Included"Above
2

1%

26

1%
(vs. 860 Failing to Graduate and 2,100 Grads Not College Ready)

Sources: Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Correction
TEA AEIS Data for 2011 - Failed to Graduate and No./Pct. of Graduates With College Entrance Exam Score Deemed College-Ready by SAT/ACT in 2010

5