Carceral Care in Kentucky: The Case of a School Safety Plan.

This case study examines public commentary from school board meetings in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), Kentucky, over five years (2017–2022) as the district developed and implemented a school safety reform centered on policing. It analyzes how carceral logics—understood as systems of surveillance, control, and punishment embedded in racial capitalism—influenced stakeholders’ views on school safety, policing, and reform efforts, including the transition from contracted School Resource Officers (SROs) to district-employed, armed School Safety Officers (SSOs). While many community members and board members supported policing as necessary for protection and deterrence, others advocated abolitionist approaches emphasizing investment in community resources, restorative justice, and alternatives to police presence. The study highlights tensions between reformist reforms that maintain policing under new guises and abolitionist visions that seek to remove police from schools and address broader structural harms through repair and reinvestment.