An Exploration of the Campus Climate for Formerly Incarcerated Students

• In Event: School and Campus

Abstract

There is a significant gap in understanding how formerly incarcerated students are integrated into university campuses. With the booming prison population in California and the growing availability of higher education programs for incarcerated individuals, it is crucial to establish a clear, identifiable, and measurable framework for evaluating their experiences, particularly regarding acceptance within academic institutions. Existing research on the collegiate experiences of formerly incarcerated students has been piecemeal in that the focus is placed on the attitudes of a particular campus constituency including students, faculty, or staff. This study sought to address this gap in the literature by being the first to survey these different stakeholders within the university community at the same time. We explore attitudes towards formerly incarcerated students using survey data from 170 respondents from one campus community. We find similar attitudes towards formerly incarcerated students across constituencies as well as across situations. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Authors

• David Penny, California State University, San Bernardino

• Douglas Weiss, California State University, San Bernardino

• Annika Anderson, California State University, San Bernardino