Using University System Data to Build Higher Education Pathways for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated People

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session: College Students With Incarceration Histories: A Discussion on the Landscape of Data Infrastructure and Research

Abstract

Purpose: This paper explains how the largest comprehensive public university system in the U.S. has operationalized data to inform program design and service delivery for students in prison education programs (PEPs) and those transitioning to college in the community. Public university systems are uniquely positioned to observe and strengthen academic pathways across multiple institutions and communities with diverse education and workforce challenges and opportunities. Authors describe how data-driven program development can transform the landscape of opportunities for individuals, their families, and communities by providing holistic support with an emphasis on education.

Perspective or framework: While any college participation by incarcerated individuals is valuable, earning a degree is more consistently associated with post-release employment, wages, hours worked, and lower recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Yet few incarcerated college students complete programs, especially those serving shorter sentences. The authors will describe, from their perspective as administrators in a public university system, how they use data to improve opportunities for incarcerated and especially formerly incarcerated people to achieve their education goals.

Methods: The authors will describe how they use a longitudinal data system (LDS) that links statewide education and corrections data to identify strengths and weaknesses in education pathways for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students within the 64-campus State University of New York. They will discuss what actions they have taken, and plan to take, to increase higher education access, persistence, and completion among incarcerated and especially formerly incarcerated SUNY students—and how they will use the LDS to monitor changes in student outcomes in the wake of their actions.

Data sources: SUNY’s LDS links individual-level education data from all SUNY campuses, including 14 prison education programs, with corrections data, student data at non-SUNY institutions from the National Student Clearinghouse, and employment and wage data from the State Department of Labor. Information on their actions will draw from their experiences leading the SUNY Office of Higher Education in Prison.

Results: The paper will describe actions taken in response to findings from the LDS, including efforts to promote institutional partnerships, increase transferability of credits, and implement an Equity Fund to support improvements in SUNY PEPs. The focus of the paper, however, will be on post-release education opportunities, including the development and early experiences of a system of re-entry navigators aimed at improving student persistence and completion rates across all regions of New York.

Significance: The paper will demonstrate the value of joining data and administrative actions at a system level to improve college access and success for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. It counters the traditional treatment of prison education programs by focusing on education rather than criminological goals; by using data for formative and improvement rather than summative purposes; by treating in combination education experiences during and after incarceration; and by taking a system rather than an individual program perspective.

Authors

• Darryl Epps, Systems Administration-SUNY

• Rachel Sander, State University of New York