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Bearing Stigma, Carrying Gifts: What Colleges Can Learn from Students with Incarceration Experience

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Abstract

There is an abundance of social science research confirming the positive outcomes associated with higher education for people who have served time in prison (Chappell in J Correct Educ 55(2): 148–169, 2004; Fine et al. in Changing minds: the impact of college in a maximum-security prison, Ronald Ridgeway, New York, 2001; Kelso 2000). Despite the evidence, institutions of higher education continue to ignore the findings, while reinforcing negative stigma and imposing institutional barriers to admission for students with documented criminal records (Rosenthal et al. in Boxed out: criminal history screening and college application attrition, Center for Community, New York, 2015). After analyzing focus groups and interviews from a participatory action research project with college students with documented criminal records, we identified a series of themes, which we have labeled gifts (McKnight and Block in The abundant community: awakening the power of families and neighborhoods, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2010; Halkovic et al. in Higher education and reentry: the gifts they bring, John Jay Research, New York, 2013. http://www.johnjayresearch.org/pri/gifts) students with criminal histories bring to their academic communities. These gifts include: deconstructing stigma/teaching the university; the desire to do more and give back; intimate knowledge of how systems work on the ground, and bridging relationships between the academy and underserved communities. Our evidence suggests that students with incarceration experience enhance the academic and civic environment of universities, dispelling the spurious suggestion that they are a risk to campus safety (Drysdale et al. in Campus attacks: targeted violence affecting institutions of higher education, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, 2010. http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac.shtml). We conclude with specific recommendations institutions of higher education should follow to foster greater inclusion in college communities.

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Notes

  1. Vivian appears in Passport to the Future and has opted to use her real name.

  2. Chango appears in the film Passport to the Future and opted to use his real name.

  3. Henry appears in the film Passport to the Future and opted to use his real name.

  4. Alvaro appears in the film Passport to the Future and opted to use his real name.

  5. Pseudonym. Focus group participant.

  6. Pseudonym. Focus group participant.

  7. Sean appears in the film, Passport to the future, and opted to use his real name.

  8. Alvaro appears in the film Passport to the Future and opted to use his real name.

  9. Pseudonym. Focus group participant.

  10. Andre was interviewed for Passport to the Future and opted to use his real name.

  11. Focus group participant. Opted to use his real name.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to: Ann Jacobs and Bianca Vanheydoorn of the Prisoner Reentry Institute for funding this project; Benay Rubenstein and Jeremy Robins for the donation of interviews from their documentary: Passport to the Future; Michelle Fine, our project advisor and mentor; our co-researchers: John Bae, Leslie Campbell, Desheen Evans, Chaka Gary, Marc Ramirez, Robert Riggs, Michael Taylor, Ray Tebout, and Aenora Tewaji; our project advisors: Douglas Thompkins, Ric Curtis, Baz Dreisinger, Michael Carey, Michael Pass, Efram Thompson, Crystal Rodriguez, Vivian Nixon, and Justice Banks. This research was supported in part by an Applied Social Issues Internship award from the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).

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  1. Critical Social/Personality Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 5th Ave. 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Alexis Halkovic & Andrew Cory Greene

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  1. Alexis Halkovic
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Correspondence to Alexis Halkovic.

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Halkovic, A., Greene, A.C. Bearing Stigma, Carrying Gifts: What Colleges Can Learn from Students with Incarceration Experience. Urban Rev 47, 759–782 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0333-x

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