By Breaunna Alexander, Research Manager, EdInsights
Supporting currently and formerly incarcerated students’ postsecondary journeys requires college personnel to navigate across institutions both within and beyond the California State University (CSU) system. Building upon the insights in the Initiating and Navigating Campus Partnerships to Support Justice-Impacted Students blog, which focused on CSU practitioners’ experiences of establishing collaborative partnerships to support currently and formerly incarcerated students within their university, this blog will share those practitioners’ experiences with collaborating across institutions.
Coordinating Across Colleges and Universities
Collaborating with other colleges and universities, across educational segments, happens both within and outside of the prison. Within prisons, collaboration and coordination between education institutions can result in aligned course offerings, advising, and degree pathways for incarcerated students, while collaboration and coordination between education institutions beyond the prison walls can support the continuation of students’ education journeys after their release from prison.
Aligning Courses, Advising, and Degree Pathways within Prisons
Unique facet of postsecondary programs in prisons is that within a single carceral institution multiple colleges and universities may be offering courses or degree pathways. The number of colleges, and personnel affiliated with a specific college or university supporting incarcerated students may vary, which adds to the complexity of navigating not only relationships with specific individuals or entities, but with aligning and coordinating services, resources, and degree pathways among these various institutions. At the time of these conversations, whether and how advising services were being provided to incarcerated students were unclear or simply not happening.
There’s no one advising these students and so they have no idea that they’re just taking classes, taking classes, taking classes, and of course, this becomes problematic with financial aid when they come home.
—Executive Director, Project Rebound
A lack of centralized and coordinated advising can impact students’ educational progress while incarcerated. In instances where a student may receive postsecondary advising while incarcerated, it is offered through a specific institution. This can mean advising a student in ways that support their academic progress at one institution may introduce redundancies or missed opportunities in their academic progress at another.
… the problem of course is that in the prison Education Department you have a college coordinator for [local CC], a College Coordinator for [non-local] college, a coordinator for [non-local CC], and a coordinator for [non-local CC]. They’re all different. They bring different skills, different knowledge, different resources, different abilities to the table, and so there’s no combination, no umbrella here.
— Executive Director, Project Rebound
Another factor in supporting efficient postsecondary progress is streamlining course offerings and degree pathways provided within a single prison. Streamlining effectively means that the various colleges and universities providing courses within a single prison, recognize the courses already being delivered and use this information to guide their additional course offerings. By developing course offerings that are informed by what each of the individual colleges and universities offer, universities can develop degree pathways that are clearly defined and non-duplicative. Streamlined degree pathways provide a clear educational pathway and progression for students regardless of the institution from which they are currently taking courses.
We need a better relationship with [the community college], not just the local one, but in general because there are multiple community colleges … at these two prisons. I don’t know what connections the three community colleges have with each other. I have very limited connection with [the local community college] and no connection whatsoever with the other two. And that’s a problem.
—Communications Professor
Unique to incarcerated students’ experiences is that individuals may be transferred to other prisons throughout the state. Since the degree pathways and college courses offered within a specific prison may differ throughout the state, prison transfers can be highly disruptive to students’ continued academic progress, making streamlined degree pathways and coordinated course offerings not only essential practices within prisons, but across prisons as well.
The students who had been at [local prison] that we had been kind of grooming for bachelor’s degree programs all along weren’t eligible because they did not have transferable degrees. They’ve been spending all of this time in [community college] … and over the years they haven’t been able to provide the courses along the degree pathway… Students from other prisons were transferred to [local prison] for the bachelor’s degree program. So, they’re coming from [various different prisons] … these guys are not eligible for the program. Prison transfers are happening all around. And they’re getting transferred to other facilities where there are no bachelor’s degree programs.
—Executive Director at an on-campus center for community service
Facilitating Learning while Incarcerated
Beyond the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) leadership’s commitment and support for in-prison bachelor’s degree programs, CSU personnel shared that garnering support from prison staff is critical. The support, or lack thereof, of correctional officers and prison education staff for in-prison postsecondary programs impact both CSU faculty and incarcerated students’ experiences. For example, correctional officers are tasked with providing access to the physical classroom, both in unlocking the room and getting currently incarcerated students from their cells to the class. However, duties related to facilitating physical access to learning are often not included as a part of correctional officers’ job descriptions and will be secondary to ensuring the safety of incarcerated individuals. There are various reasons why a correctional officer may be unable to facilitate students’ access to the physical classroom such as resistant attitudes towards supporting incarcerated students’ postsecondary education or, more tangibly, lockdowns that prohibit the movement of individuals throughout the carceral institution. A collaborative relationship between college faculty and correctional officers could allow for parties to work together to provide access to learning even within movement restrictions, such as through the dissemination and collection of written learning materials.
If we could bring all those people together in one room and say we have an opportunity to do something different to really improve communities…we could actually change some hearts and minds of those frontline people that are going to make this program because they make it or break it. Their attitudes reverberate amongst everybody. Once we have their buy-in then we could bring in their supervisors and say and … say we already have buy-in from your staff. And just build buy-in like that and then have everybody on board to build the program. And if we did it like that instead of going in with, ‘We’re starting this program [and] wanted to let you know.’ It kind of worked, but I wouldn’t want to do it that way again.
—Associate Dean
Continuing Postsecondary Education after Prison
Coordinating and streamlining courses and degree pathways are not only essential for students to make timely and effective academic progress while incarcerated, but also for continuing their education following their release from prison. CSU personnel shared a number of barriers that students encounter when coming home. Through these interviews, personnel recounted that students may be released to a part of the state that is different from where they were in prison; meaning, they would potentially need to enroll in an entirely different university to continue progressing towards their degree. Potentially, courses required at the new institution could be different from those the student has already taken for a similar degree, resulting in additional steps before the student can enroll in the university. Moreover, formerly incarcerated students may experience barriers to academic progress due to administrative processes (e.g., restricted course offerings in prisons). Without exceptions from the university receiving the formerly incarcerated student, the student may encounter further delays in making academic progress.
We need better partnerships with non-CDCR campuses. I can’t offer foreign language inside the prison because it’s a 5-unit course and it’s 2 semesters and I don’t have a time block for a 5-unit course. I have to do a waiver or offer a different kind of class using some fine print in the [California Education Code]. But what happens when that student goes to another CSU and they say, well, you didn’t take foreign language [course]. I work for the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. He’s the guy who makes exceptions, so it’s fine here. But if you parole to go back home to San Diego or wherever, that doesn’t travel with you. We need better collaboration within the system and not just with the prison program schools.
—Communications Professor
Coordinating Holistic Services and Supports
The coordination across services and supports is essential for in-person bachelor’s degree programs to function effectively in terms of design and implementation and in providing students with holistic support. The success of these programs hinges on the ability of college personnel to understand, navigate, and expertly coordinate efforts while attending to varied policies and processes across the institutions and organizations that interact to support currently and formerly incarcerated students in their journey through and beyond prison. For example, leveraging Project Rebound for reentry support—from academic to social to personal—as well as counseling and advising services is essential for connecting formerly incarcerated students with services that respond to their personal and academic needs, which positively impacts their ability to make progress towards a degree. Interviewees explained the integral role that community organizations play in providing basic needs, support, and wrap-around services, especially when it comes to areas of higher need such as housing, transportation, and food.
Summary
Incarcerated students’ postsecondary education pathway is often challenging to navigate as barriers to completion are introduced at nearly every stage of their journey. For many incarcerated individuals they experience relocation either while or after serving a prison sentence, making degree progress difficult when academic advising, course offerings, and degree pathway requirements are not shared or recognized across higher education institutions. Similar to frontline staff on college and university campuses, frontline staff within prisons may be tasked with additional duties outside of their defined responsibilities, which must always be secondary to their primary duty of ensuring the safety of all people within the prison. Both unsafe prison situations or conditions and resistant attitudes towards college-attainment for incarcerated individuals can shape incarcerated students’ physical access to learning. Finally, after being released from prison, formerly incarcerated individuals must contend not only with social stigma and meeting the conditions of their release, but also with overcoming barriers to basic needs and support. These structural and societal conditions introduce numerous challenges that make currently and formerly incarcerated students’ journeys to and through postsecondary programs difficult. In the next and final blog in this series of insights from CSU personnel, we will present the strategies and opportunities for innovation that respond to the challenges currently and formerly incarcerated students face throughout their educational journey.