Despite a perceived retrenchment of exclusionary school punishment, the disciplinary alternative school has emerged as a space in which to enforce upon marginalized students the logics of neoliberal carcerality. This article draws on the code of conduct handbooks of 15 Texas Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs to illustrate how this space seeks to reaffirm social and economic marginality for certain youth. Specific processes in the alternative school prepare youth for a life of imprisonment, often characterized by criminal justice system involvement, but also precarious (un)employment. As such, this article situates the disciplinary alternative school as one of many ‘alternatives’ to carcerality through which the carceral state maintains its power.
