In this essay Ken McGrew critically examines the "school-to-prison pipeline" metaphor and associated literature. The origins and influence of the metaphor are compared with the origins and influence of the competing "prison industrial complex" concept. Specific weaknesses in the "pipeline literature" are examined. These problems are described as resulting, in part, from the influence that the pipeline metaphor has on the thinking of those who follow it. McGrew argues that addressing the weaknesses in the literature, abandoning the metaphor, and adopting a more complex theoretical orientation grounded in critical scholarship, will enable educational scholars to better capture the relational nature of the social phenomena being described while simultaneously making their work more useful to emerging movements for social justice.