Higher Education and Reentry: The Gifts They Bring
Higher Education and Reentry: The Gifts They Bring and Supplemental White Papers
This Participatory Action Research study, conducted by Michelle Fine, Alexis Halkovic (CUNY Graduate Center) and a team of research assistants, explores the lived experiences of people with criminal justice histories as they attend and contemplate enrolling in college. The report highlights the journeys of these students and considers a number of important questions: What does it take for people with criminal justice histories to successfully transform the trajectory of their lives? What are the obstacles they face? What affirmative steps can we take to make our public and private colleges and universities more welcoming to this growing population of students?
To supplement the main report, three of its contributing research assistants wrote white papers examining higher education and reentry. These papers provide additional historical context and further insights to obstacles that individuals with criminal records face when pursuing higher education. The papers consider significant issues, such as licensing restrictions imposed on formerly incarcerated applicants; how the documentation of private psychiatric histories in prison may follow a person well beyond release into job and college applications; the impact of higher education in prison, networks of support, and parole practices.
Read the supplemental papers here:
- Higher Education and Incarceration in the United States: The Intersection of Institutions
By Robert Riggs - Checking the Box: Enduring the Stigma of Applying to Graduate School Post-Incarceration
By Andrew Cory Greene - What Information Travels After Release?
By Desheen Evans