Prison Education and Reentry Commons^™

An Evidence-Based Approach To Prison Library Provision: Aligning Policy And Practice, Jayne Finlay, Susannah Hanlon, Jessica Bates

Journal of Prison Education Research

The aim of this paper is to enable a better understanding of the possibilities of prison library services and offer evidence that can help to support efforts to align policy and practice in prison library provision. Alongside an examination of existing policies, guidelines and literature, the paper presents findings that emerged from interviews with six prison library experts, undertaken as part of a recent national review of prison library services in Ireland. Following a discussion of these findings, a set of ten principles for prison library provision in Ireland is presented which holds relevance for global prison library policy and …

Black Youth Males Transitioning From The Juvenile Justice System To Comprehensive School, Andria R. Heaven

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

This dissertation explores the barriers faced by Black Youth Males Transitioning from the Juvenile Justice System to Comprehensive School.

The purpose of this study was to provide administrators with a product that can assist staff collaborating with Black male students to seamlessly and successfully transition to a comprehensive school after being released from a secured Department Juvenile Justice facility. The product addresses effective school support for Black male youths who have been detained in the juvenile justice system to re-engage them in such a way to achieve a diploma. This study also investigated school re-entry procedures with formerly incarcerated youth, …

A Neuroscience-Based Curriculum For Addiction Prevention For Fourth-Grade Students, Paola Andrea Benitez

Social Work Theses - Archive

Substance use is one of the main problems affecting adolescents and young adults. While the consumption of alcohol has decreased, the consumption of marijuana has increased rampantly due to youth's positive perception after being legalized in 24 states with no clear message of the many adverse effects this drug causes. Different approaches to prevention have been used throughout the years: scare-led tactics, socio-emotional learning skills, and neuroscience-based curriculums. Since substance use results from the conjunction of different biopsychosocial factors that lead to this relapsing brain disease, the solution should integrate different preventive solutions as well. Public policy, schools, social workers, …

The Extent To Which The Humanistic Approach In Japanese Juvenile Training Schools Affects Recidivism, Natalie Bui

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Japan’s juvenile justice system is regarded as one of the most unique and successful implementations of reformative justice. This approach has remained effective in maintaining Japan’s low rates of juvenile delinquency and recidivism, despite massive changes in Japanese society over the past decade. While Japan’s crime seems to be on an impressive decline, the United States continues to struggle with social control, juvenile delinquency, and, more recently, demands for justice reform from social movements like the Black Lives Matter Movement. The American juvenile justice system needs reform now more than ever and where better to get inspiration, than the industrialized …

Incarcerated To Educated: The On-Campus Experiences Of College Students Post Incarceration, Taylor Comer

Masters Theses

As reentry rates continue to climb in the United States, more individuals with felony convictions on their criminal records will be looking to obtain post-secondary education to make themselves more marketable in the workforce. The purpose of this narrative study was to examine the experiences of three individuals that pursued higher education after being released from prison. It was determined that the criminality of these individuals had minimal impact on their experiences in higher education, and that there are other components of their identity that have a heavier influence on their likelihood of success. The other components of their identities …

Prisoner Of War, Monsour Owolabi

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Poetry

The Influence Of Prison Skills Programming On The Reentry Process, Jennifer Tatten

Educational Studies Dissertations

Prison skills programming that is focused on employment readiness, reentry skills, parenting and family relationships, life skills, and anger management is offered with an understanding that the information will support individuals with reentry in areas such as family reintegration and employment. The purpose of this mixed-methods dissertation study was to explore the reasons that individuals chose to participate in skills programming during incarceration and their perceptions about the ways in which skills programming influenced their experiences with family and employment during reentry. Data were collected from diverse participants using a Reentry Experiences Survey (RES) (Appendix A), in-depth interviews, and archival …

Scoping The Potential Of A Noongar Re-Entry Peer Navigator Model, Jane Anderson

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

The Noongar people of the South West of Western Australia (WA) continue to seek self-determination and empowerment to ensure their families are able to meet cultural, economic and social needs. Their aspirations, however, are thwarted by a significant number of their members who are incarcerated and the adverse consequences of imprisonment on families. In the meantime, the WA prison system is yet to respond to the unique needs of Noongar prisoners transitioning out of the prison system. The article reviews the literature to develop the idea of a Noongar re-entry peer navigator (PN) model. In this model, select Noongar people …

College Administrator Experiences: A Phenomenological Study Of Higher Education Leadership In American Prisons, Donavan Bailey

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Higher education for the incarcerated (HEP) is a re-energized phenomenon in the age of criminal justice reform and social change. Following the 2015 Second Chance Pell Grant Experimental Initiative (SCP), which granted select colleges tuition funding for prisoners, HEP grew exponentially. The successes of the SCP laid the groundwork for the 2020 FASFA Simplification Act. In July 2023 the 2020 FSA begins, and all those imprisoned within America may access Pell Grant Funds for higher education. Despite momentous efforts to bring higher education to the incarcerated, HEP grapples with continued challenges and lacks unified, evidence-based competency equal to normative higher …

Incarcerated Bodies – Embodied Autoethnography In Prison, Shulamit Kitzis‬‎

The Qualitative Report

Prison is a study field in which everyone – inmates, guards, and prison researchers – experiences powerful sensory stimuli comprised of sounds, sights, and smells in a crowded, closed space. Yet traditional academic research has socialized researchers to “wash away” their physical and emotional feelings for fear they would jeopardize the scientific nature and validity of their studies. Nevertheless, at times in a prison setting, the researchers’ bodies are the only tool that enables them to document what goes on; so much so that ignoring their bodies and emotions leads to a loss of valuable information. Using embodied autoethnography (EA), …

Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs

Scripps Senior Theses

This curriculum guide is designed to connect students’ understandings of environmental problems and injustices to their understandings of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, with the ultimate intention of cultivating the knowledge and imaginative practices to develop abolitionist-aligned solutions to environmental justice (EJ) problems outside of frameworks that rely upon state sanction. Students will connect the mutual causal forces of environmental injustices and the carceral state; explore intersections of environmental and carceral politics; and finish the course with broadened understandings of humans’ real and unrealized relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. The guide is intended to be worked through …

How Prison Systems Can Better Aid People With Substance Use Disorders, Avery Faires

College Honors Program

A large percentage of prisoners in the United States are suffering from a Substance Use Disorder (SUD), but many prisons across the country lack the proper resources to rehabilitate those with drug addictions. Incarcerated people with SUD face many dangerous and sometimes deadly consequences after release. My thesis addresses key associated questions: What role do prisons play in helping prisoners with SUD? And, how can they aid this population more effectively? When considering the breadth of such issues, I examine the sociohistorical context of drug policy in the U.S. to inform my analysis of the criminalization of substances, the greater …

Connecting Incarcerated College Students To Digital Learning Resources, Ethan Annis

Archbishop Alemany Library | Faculty Presentations

These slides accompanied the presentation, Connecting Incarcerated Students to Digital Resources, which was delivered on April 1, 2022, during the general session, at the CARL-ACRL conference. The slides describe Ethan Annis' experience, between December 2019 - March 2022, of leading efforts to incorporate technology and library services into the education of students at Mount Tamalpais College, which educates ~300 incarcerated students inside San Quentin. When Ethan started, there were no computers for student use. By the end of March 2022 there were 35 laptops inside (plus 25 ordered), every student had a Canvas account, computer literacy assessment, tutoring and …

Trauma-Informed Programming For Incarcerated Youth, Chelsea Williams, Hailey Murray, Jay Moser, Heather Roesinger, Tammy Hughes

Graduate Student Research Symposium

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (n.d.) “…more than 80% of justice-involved youth report experiencing trauma, with many having experienced multiple, chronic, and pervasive interpersonal traumas.” Justice-involved youth at the Academic Institute -- a school within Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) that is tasked with educating children who are incarcerated at the facility -- sought guidance on how to support youth who have a history of trauma. The curriculum from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network called ‘Complex Trauma: A Guide for Youth and Those Who Care About Them’ was implemented with 25 students in small groups. Psychoeducational materials …

Bars To Bridges: Culturally Responsive Education Advocacy, Micaella Flores, Christine Otto

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

We'll explore tangible ways to advocate for BIPOC students who've experienced educational disruptions. We’ll discuss the methods and model The Bars to Bridges Program uses to successfully transition justice involved youth into their academic settings and maintain engagement in education.

Promoting Resilience In Youth Through A Group Poetry And Art Making Program, Nile V. Stanley, Steffani Fletcher

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Hope at Hand, Inc. is a North Florida nonprofit that uses therapeutic art and poetry lessons to help marginalized youth recognize and overcome circumstances that limit their successful participation in society. The presentation will demonstrate interventions informed by narrative psychological research to improve resilience through the coping strategies of (1) social competence, (2) problem-solving skills, (3) autonomy, (4) sense of purpose, and (5) life story reframing.

The Road To Justice: Incarcerated Students’ View On Education Behind Bars, Margaret Baker Price

Online Theses and Dissertations

The experience of students that are incarcerated is largely unknown. This qualitative phenomenological research study allowed four college students that are incarcerated to share their experiences. Research shows individuals who are incarcerated are less likely to reoffend this study upon release. This study will show how these individuals view their educational experience during incarceration. Interviews were conducted with each participant and data was coded and organized into themes. By utilizing a phenomenological stance, observations were made of events that led to the placement of participants in the prison system and how education has impacted their time spent incarcerated. Themes discovered …

Genealogy Behind Bars: An Update, Kathrine C. Aydelott

Faculty Publications

This brief essay is an update to “Genealogy Behind Bars: Professional Development Through Prisoner Requests: A Case Study,” in Genealogy and the Librarian: Perspectives on Research, Instruction, Outreach and Management, Carol Smallwood and Vera Gubnitskaia, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018, which see for context.

An Evaluation Of The County Of Santa Clara’S Reentry Alcohol And Drug Studies Peer Mentor Program, Sarah Oliveira

Master's Projects

In the United States, incarceration rates have increased dramatically over the last three decades, soaring above any other country. Significant factors contributing to the increase include changes in sentencing laws and policies that target drug-related offenders and prioritize punishment over rehabilitation. Strict sentencing laws have led to mass incarceration, which has caused severe prison overcrowding and led to the infringement of fundamental human rights in prisons (Gottesdiener, 2011).

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, approximately 600,000 individuals are released from federal and state prisons each year (Carson, 2018). In California, an estimated one in three adults has an arrest …

Rising Scholars: Narratives Of Formerly Incarcerated/System-Impacted Community College Students In An On-Campus Support Program, Jason Durrell Bostick

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This study uplifted the stories of formerly incarcerated and/or system-impacted students attending a California community college (i.e., “Rising Scholars”) to provide qualitative context to a growing literature following the state’s promotion of support programs at the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and California Community Colleges (CCC) systems. This study interviewed six formerly incarcerated/system impacted Rising Scholars using a narrative inquiry methodology with a theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Desistance theory to inquire about their educational experiences before and during their enrollment at an urban California community college with reentry support. Key themes in the …

Advancing Behavioral Health Literacy, James Scollione

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Accessing, comprehending, and using information to make informed decisions and improve one’s overall health or well-being are the foci of health literacy. The concept of behavioral health was introduced in the early 1980s and, since then, it has influenced new ideas (e.g., behavioral health literacy and integrated behavioral health care) and gained research and public attention. My aim is to provide an overview of definitions (i.e., health literacy, mental health literacy, and behavioral health literacy) and their connection to each other. I propose an expanded and honed definition of behavioral health literacy to enhance the behavioral health literacy and well-being …

What Is Philosophy In Prison? George Eliot And The Search For Moral Insight, Alison Liebling

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

I argue in this article that people in prison make excellent philosophers, for reasons related to what they are deprived of. I also suggest that great novels constitute, or at the very least, introduce us to, philosophy. Some of the deepest questions about human life can be addressed by fusing philosophical thinking with empirical research in prisons. Prisoners talk with depth and insight about what it is to feel human, what matters most in human experience, and the importance of the ‘vibrations of fellow feeling’.

Bridging A Gap Of Understanding: A Model Of Experiential Learning For Incarcerated Students And Non-Incarcerated Undergraduates, Dale Brown, Zoann K. Snyder

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Service learning has evolved as a primary experience-based curriculum for undergraduate students. But much of what universities put forward as service learning is not a genuine engagement with community partners to help advance meaningful social change to address social problems. In this paper, we outline our preliminary attempt to do just that—what we call The Bridge Model. The discussion that follows occurs in the context of a semester-long project between undergraduate students at a Midwestern University (MU) and incarcerated participants from the university’s prison education program. First, we briefly situate the partnership in terms of its theoretical background in experiential …

No Cell For The Soul: Prison, Philosophy And Bernard Stiegler - A Short Appreciation, Rod Earle

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Bernard Stiegler was a French philosopher who served 5 years in prison for a series of bank robberies committed in his youth. He died in August 2020, aged just 68, a professor celebrated in the highest ranks of continental philosophy. Stiegler subsequently published over 30 books, at the core of which is the series tellingly gathered under the title ‘Time and Technics’. His essay, ‘How I became a philosopher’, convinced me he, and it, should be on every prison philosophy course. In this article I outline why, as a convict criminologist, I feel an affinity with Stiegler’s project.

Rethinking Social Reintegration And Prison: A Critical Analysis Of An Educational Proposal For An Alternative Model In Brazil, Sergio Grossi

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

The call for social reintegration of prisoners, in many cases, does not work or has been abandoned, leaving the question of inclusivity regarding the imprisoned an open challenge in contemporary societies. My study provides a critical analysis of a model defined as an educational system of social reintegration, which aspires to be an alternative to imprisonment in Brazil and worldwide by proposing a reduction in the recidivism rate at a lower cost. I discuss the possibilities of social reintegration and the educational conceptions and practices that can emerge from it, though a document analysis and ethnography of two model units. …

The Lopez Effect Remixed: The Significance Of Mattering Through A Hip-Hop Lens In Education And Beyond, Kashema Hutchinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this dissertation is to examine the theoretical frameworks of mattering (Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981; Schlossberg, 1989; Love, 2018) in traditional and non-traditional spaces through a Hip-hop lens. When mattering is applied to marginalized groups, it centers them to a certain extent. In my dissertation, I examine how Dr. Nadia Lopez, the former principal of junior high school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy (MHBA), employed mattering in her holistic approach to education. Her dedication to her students, faculty and staff went viral on the popular blog Humans of New York in January 2015. Lopez’s commitment is to “open a …

Parental Incarceration And The Costly Effects On Their Children, Briana Rae Zocher

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The purpose of this project is to bring awareness to the silent victims associated with parental incarceration – their children. Throughout this project, the focus will be aimed towards promoting the education of the effects of parental incarceration and the impact it has on their children in a variety of compacities and how those settings influence incarceration amongst children of incarcerated parents. In addition, this paper will discuss parental incarceration in three different lens views: administrative, ethical, and legal. First, the administrative lens pertaining to leadership and evolution to successful leadership, especially the critical component of crisis communication strategy. Second, …

Victim Impact: The Manson Murders And The Rise Of The Victims’ Rights Movement, Merrill W. Steeg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Understanding Aspiration And Education Towards Desistance From Offending: The Role Of Higher Education In Wales, Mark Jones, Debbie Jones

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

There has been a growing recognition of the value of education in facilitating desistance from offending. Yet, despite a determined push to “widen access” universities continue to be an unwelcoming place for those with a criminal record. To better understand the role of higher education in raising aspiration towards desistance, this paper draws on findings from a study in Swansea, Wales. Adopting a Pictorial Narrative approach the findings suggest that, whilst the participants identified potential benefits of attaining a higher education, those aspirations were outweighed by a distrust of the “institution” and a fear that the stigmatisation experienced through the …

Career Preperation Capstone, Jennifer M. Combs

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education at Morehead State University on April 14, 2021.