What Previously Incarcerated Persons Bring to a College Campus

• In Event: Reimagining Criminology: Utilizing a Critical Lens to Explore Current Topics in Criminology

Abstract

In the United States, 87.3 percent of state and federal prisoners do not hold a postsecondary degree, while 58.7 percent do not have a high school diploma or GED (Harlow, 2003). Yet, 66 percent of postsecondary institutions collect criminal history from their applicants when making admissions decisions (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Formerly incarcerated persons are underrepresented among college students and must overcome a multitude of barriers when pursuing a college degree. In this presentation, preliminary findings will be presented from a qualitative study which collected life-course narratives from formerly incarcerated individuals who attended a postsecondary educational institution following release. This study analyzed the life-course narratives from a Cultural Capital perspective, specifically Yosso's (2005) theory of Community Cultural Wealth.

Author

• Gresham D. Collom, University of Tennessee, Knoxville