The Prison-to-College-to-Jobs Pipeline

• In Event: The Prison-to-School Pipeline: Nondeficit Approaches to Examining the Educational Trajectories of Marginalized Latino Males

Abstract

The purpose of this case study is to highlight the academic experiences of previously incarcerated students of color in a prison-to-college-to-jobs pipeline program. The students were former gang members and have previously attended or are currently enrolled in community colleges. This paper also focuses on describing the often invisible and unnoticed forms of racism—racial microaggressions. This study helps re-frame the existing research on the school-to-prison pipeline to suggest a more equitable and just pathway for this group of students as part of their reintegration to society: the prison-to-college-to-jobs pipeline. Last, this study examines how these students respond to different types of racial microaggressions on their community college campus.

As student diversity in higher education continues to encompass myriad groups that include numerous intersecting combinations, university staff and students must learn about the deficit-oriented institutional practices that pose barriers for previously incarcerated and former gang members, who are now college students. It is also imperative to discuss the harmful and demeaning effects that racial microaggressions pose on these students. Unknowingly, institutional agents must be cognizant of the changing dynamics of the 21st century college student, which may include previously incarcerated and former gang members seeking higher education as a way of reintegration and social mobility.

This study employs Critical Race Theory (Solorzano, Ceja & Yosso, 2000), funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1995), and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005). The combination of these theories urges a need for additional empirical studies and professional practices that incorporate previously incarcerated and former gang members into the fabric of higher education, and we focus on community colleges as a critical entry point.

We share some of the guiding research questions: 1) What do previously incarcerated or former gang members experience as they reintegrate and transition into community college and the workforce? 2) Do formerly incarcerated gang members seeking higher education experience racial microaggressions on community college campuses? 3) How does this particular group of students experience racial microaggressions within their own race in community colleges?

Preliminary findings suggest these students experience racial microaggressions from their similar raced peers, and the microagressions are heightened by the study participants’ external appearance (e.g. tattoos, speech pattern). Second, male participants experience racial microaggressions more frequently than their female counterparts. Lastly, faculty members tend to categorize these students as deficient or as a failure based on their own beliefs about this particular group of students. The embedded structural racist institutional practices along with individual enactments of racial microaggressions upon previously incarcerated and former gang members within higher education promotes a hostile learning environment for students. Institutional agents and students must foster greater efforts to promote inclusion of other marginalized students in order to create safe and open campus environments.

Authors

• Cecilia Rios Aguilar, University of California - Los Angeles

• Luis G. Giraldo, University of California - Los Angeles