Promise Boys

The school-to-prison nexus (sometimes called “pipeline”) is the idea that schools for minoritized students, specifically Black and Brown students, disproportionately prepare students for life in prison. Because of the perception of these students as inherently unruly or dangerous, they are treated more harshly and placed in prison-like environments in school, creating a narrative where they are on a “pipeline” toward prison from birth. In these schools, the “approach to discipline dominate[s] the educational experiences of students and staff,” serving to “creat[e] a repressive culture founded on mistrust” (Kautz, Matthew B. “Past, Present, and Future: Making and Unmaking the School-Prison Nexus.” PRRAC, 25 July 2023). School uniforms, police presence, exclusionary policies like suspension or expulsion for minor infractions, and strict no-talking and formation policies are just some of the tactics of coercion and control that can foster an adversarial relationship between a school and its students.

Promise Boys centers around Urban Promise Prep School, a preparatory school whose policies mirror the real-life schools that contribute to this phenomenon. As the novel explores the days around Principal Moore’s death, the reader is introduced to the “Moore Method,” a strict, zero-tolerance system at Promise designed to control every aspect of the students’ lives.