Prison, College, and the Labor Market
By Khoi Quach and Michael Cerda-Jara
By the year 2027, 70 percent of all jobs are projected to require some form of postsecondary education. Yet, as today’s postindustrial labor market becomes more competitive and skilled, national social safety nets continue to erode internationally. In this context, a college education and credential are no longer a privilege, but rather a necessary milestone, for many people in their path towards adulthood and upward mobility. Unfortunately, the inflating costs of a college degree, in terms of both money and time, leave this milestone out of reach for an increasing number of people.
Most significantly, for justice-impacted individuals facing a host of compounded trauma and hardships from neighborhood disadvantage and incarceration, higher barriers to education and employment in adulthood can put them ever closer into cycles of interminable recidivism and intergenerational disadvantage. And for them, a college education increasingly comes to represent both a potential dream (by securing useful skills, credentials, and thus good-paying jobs) and promise (by securing a capacity for critical reflection and creative potential) in their path towards liberation. Amidst this reality, research shows that while many incarcerated people recognize the value of and benefit from higher education, few are able to realize their hopes in seeking college education and credentials. Accordingly, most never get to realize the promise of liberation, while many are left ill-equipped to participate in the highly competitive, skilled labor market awaiting them after release from correctional institutions.
Taken from: Berkeley Underground Scholars Instagram - Photographer credit
This unfortunate reality has persisted for quite some time. In our article, we retrace how — starting in the 1970’s⸺the United States underwent a shift towards a more punitive, populist, and racialized paradigm of punishment, consequently leading to huge expansions in state corrections budgets and prison populations over the subsequent decades. During this period, the provision of public entitlements became a key political issue. Major reforms were introduced, often to the detriment of incarcerated people. However, the fiscal unsustainability of punitive incarceration and its harmful effects on poor communities and people of color have compelled a new wave of reform in recent years. Thus, we also highlight how such recent reforms represent a momentous transitioning underway in national policy and a clear shift away from the late 20th century’s tough-on-crime philosophy.
In light of this recent development, we examine how the new wave of reforms has led to a significant reshuffling of institutional roles and partnerships in today’s political economic management of justice-impacted populations. This emergent trend is exemplified by the introduction of programs — like the federal Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites in 2015 — wherein academic institutions are granted the authority and resources to partner with correctional facilities for the provision of postsecondary education programs and to administer federal Pell Grants for incarcerated students enrolled in such programs. Relatedly, in partnership with a California correctional facility, UC Irvine launched the first in-prison bachelor’s degree completion program within the University of California system in 2020.
Seen from a historical perspective, the recent proliferation and success of such collaborative partnerships presents a much-needed moment of reprieve for justice-impacted individuals. Nonetheless, many of them currently still confront a host of unique challenges which can often destabilize their lives and, in turn, disrupt their educational trajectories. What’s more, for students under community supervision via probation or parole, mandatory check-ins and travel restrictions often impose further constraints on their college enrollment and attendance. In our article, we outline how these barriers are merely at the tip of the iceberg of hurdles that justice-impacted students must face, both within and beyond their journey in higher education.
Hence, we also emphasize the crucial need for more institutional collaborations — specifically those that actually account for and address the complex challenges confronting justice-impacted students — to better foster their future success. We highlight exemplary cases of best practices at this frontier of reforms via existing programs in the state of California. Notably, Project Rebound and Underground Scholars are official campus organizations serving justice-impacted students enrolled in public state universities. What clearly sets these organizations apart is the way they diligently work together with various partners to 1) understand and address the unique constellation of challenges that justice-impacted students face, and 2) help spread support for justice-impacted students in schools across the country. Their renowned impact thus far is directly linked to their shared organizational priority to proactively assist justice-impacted students with enrollment, financial aid, housing, tutoring, and employment.
In short, while there’s still a long road ahead for truly redressing the cumulative harms and disadvantages that justice-impacted people have been structurally subjected to, we believe that the ongoing development of impactful organizations like Underground Scholars and Project Rebound offers not only a hopeful glimpse into the present possibilities for change, but also a promising vision of the potential future awaiting us. That is, a world brimming with positive optimism in lieu of punitive pessimism, expressed through the realized dreams and fulfilled lives of justice-impacted students.
Article Details
Prison, College, and the Labor Market: A Critical Analysis by Formerly Incarcerated and Justice-Impacted Students
Khoi Quach, Michael Cerda-Jara, Raven Deverux, and Johnny Smith
First Published September 14, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/00027162221112772
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
About the Authors
