The Lived Experiences of Two-Year College Students with Felony Records
Lawrence J. Mrozek University of Central Arkansas
James Badger Sinclair Community College
Dana Murray Patterson Wright State University
March 26, 2012 Louisville, KY
ACPA 2012
Presentation Overview
• Introductions/Epoche • Overview • Background • Literature Review • Methods • Findings • Developing Services Discussion • Closing/Evaluation
Epoché (bracketing)
• Greek for “suspension” • Edmund Husserl • Suspend judgment • Allow information to flow freely into
consciousness • From where are you coming? • What information do you have? • WHY?
Overview
•The Study: What is it like to be an ex-offender who wants a college education?
•Limited to Community College students
•Felons: Underserved or Undeserving?
•Barriers to success.
Background* • Over 700,000 prisoners are released
annually.
• 60% will be re-charged within 3 years.
• 40% will be re-incarcerated within 3 years.
• Unemployment among ex-offenders is 25 – 40%
• Literacy • 19% Illiterate • 40% Functionally illiterate
*(As cited in U.S. Department of Labor, 2012)
Background* •Two in five prison and jail inmates lack a high school diploma or its equivalent •Jobs, education, and connections to the community impact recidivism. •Many ex-offenders attempt to enter college. •We often don’t know who they are.
•What does incarceration do to “normal” student development?
*(As cited in U.S. Department of Labor, 2012)
Selected Literature • Felony Label (Chiricos, Barrick, Bales, &
Bontrager, 2007) • Labeled a felon (adjudicated guilty)
significantly more recidivism • Racial Ethnic Threat (Bontrager, Bales, &
Chiricos, 2005)
• Stigmitization on College Campus (Steffensmeier & Kramer, 1980)
• Ex-Convicts < Ex-Mental Patients (Edwards, 2000)
• Journeys in Social Stigma (Copenhaver, Edwards-Willey, & Byers, 2007) • Perceived and real stigmas on college
campus
Phenomenology
“Asks for the very nature of a phenomenon, for that which makes a some-‘thing’ what it is – and without which it could not be what is” (van Manen, 1990)
“What is the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived experiences of this phenomenon for this person or group of people?” (Patton, 2002, p. 132)
Participants
• Ethnicities – 2 - White, African American, Bi-Racial • Ages – 26, 29. 45, 46 • Male • Midwestern • One homeless • Two disabled • One veteran • Lower SES • Different Institutions
Methods
• Epistemology – Constructivist • Paradigm/Methodology – Hermeneutic
Phenomenology • Methods • In-Person Interviews • Snowballing & Nomination • Data Analysis • Thematic Interpretations • Member Checking/Peer Review
Findings
• Limited Options • I’m Not a Bad Person˝ • Negotiating the System(s) • Wanting a Legacy • Wanting a Career • Paying the Price for the Rest of
Your Life
Limited Options “I went back to (school) because I knew the money was there. I knew I was eligible for it. I knew I was going to have to re-update my skills and just, I was, I was like you know I need to take something that is so specialized, or so dangerous, nobody else wants to do it, or they are not smart enough to do it. One of the two…
Limited Options …I need to have something where they’re going to say, “Well, there’s only so many people in the country that can do this, we don’t care about felonies. When I was in (state), if you could walk a wall three stories up with no (problems) and one nail gun, they didn’t care how much beer you drink, or who you killed, or… they didn’t’ care as long as you could get the job done.”
Limited Options "Going state to state on parole is very difficult, uh, there is a big process, there's interstate compact, the states they're coming from have to contact the state you are going to. They have to go to, well, you have to have a residence there already before you ever move. you have to have some place to go in that state and that state has to say, 'OK, you can come.‘…
Limited Options ...If he's a sex offender, or if, you know if, you know, I don't even know if the guy is violent it's like, you know, 'OK, this is our state now we're bringing in a violent offender from (state).' I mean this may not look real good for the next election or whatever. So, for one it takes, it takes at least six to eight months , it took me six to eight months from (state) to (state)."
Limited Options “You go into a bank or going into a community store that’s just not something that’s in my mind. I’m not going to do it, you know, I’d rather just be poor and live in a shelter…and it seems like the way that it’s designed that they want you to. You know, things are so limited. I can’t find work. I can’t find a job. You know, I’m going to try to maintain some semblance of civility in my life, you know, I could be sleeping in the gutter or under a bridge…
Limited Options …or something, I’m not going to do that. So, I mean, if there’s, if there’s no opportunity a lot of people will think that, that instead of going to the shelter, you know, I’ll just walk down here to the bank. Either I get caught and put in jail, I got three cups and a cot, or I get away with it and I get the money. If they shoot me, then I’m dead and I don’t got to worry about it anyway.”
I’m Not a Bad Person˝ "The people (driving through the neighborhood) that ride past you while you are walking down the street slow down to just look over with that look on their face. It's like, but not knowing that everyone in the projects, is, is not bad, you know. Because the people you are looking at with that look on your face could be the same person that is real compatible with you.”
I’m Not a Bad Person˝ “I'm not a bad guy. I've had some bad things that have happened to me but I'm not out here, uhm, busting out windows with a sledge hammer just like it happened last night. You watch the news that's what you, we'd wake up and I'd say, "Granny, let's have some coffee and see who got robbed last night."
Negotiating the System(s)
"It should say, 'FELONY COURSES!...NON-FELONY COURSES! You will get a job with THESE courses! You will NOT get a job with THESE courses!”
Negotiating the System(s)
“I looked up on Yahoo as to what college classes should a felon take and they just kept dancing around the question and they basically just told me to open up my own business. And I was like, ‘Hell, that don't make no difference.’”
Wanting a Legacy “ I want to see if I could change that somehow be a force to somehow make it a little different for maybe my son, if he makes some mistakes in his life and he wants to change his life around I want to be able to help him to do what he really wants to do in life regardless of what he had done as a child"
Wanting a Career “I had to do a drastic, uh, career change because I was informed that because of my criminal record background, because of my criminal background I would not be able to pursue the career choice, uh, that I had previously chosen, uh, I wanted to go into emergency medical services career but , uh, upon further research and talking to the Fire Chief actually he told me, uh, that with a felony background I cannot be certified in the state that I live in…
Wanting a Career
…So I had to rethink my strategies as far as my career, uh, I was under the impression in that things like those, or careers like those, are kind of exclusive clubs like, uh, firefighters, they only one they only want people that they feel are like on their level”
Paying the Price for the Rest of You Life
“There are a lot of young men and women out here, who, who were young and were not as wise in their teenager, early 20s, so the man I was in 18 is not the man I'll will be at 35. But the government says that you see me as I was at that 18-year-old child so I mean right now I want to see what I can do to change that, that outlook for someone with any type of convictions on their, on their record because mistakes were made and we have to be held accountable for them but no mistakes last a lifetime”
References Bontrager, S., Bales, W., & Chiricos, T. (2005). Race, ethnicity, threat and the labeling of convicted felons. Criminology, 43, 589-622. Chiricos, T. E. D., Barrick, K., Bales, W., & Bontrager, S. (2007). The labeling of convicted felons and its consequences for recidivism. Criminology, 45, 547-581. Copenhaver, A., Edwards-Willey, T. L., & Byers, B. D. (2007). Journeys in social stigma: The lives of formerly incarcerated felons in higher education. Journal of Correctional Education, 58, 268-283. Edwards, K. A. (2000). Stigmatizing the stigmatized: A note on the mentally ill prison inmate. International Journal of Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology, 44(4), 480. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Steffensmeier, D. J., & Kramer, J. H. (1980). The differential impact of criminal stigmatization on male and female felons. Sex Roles, 6(1), 1-8. U.S. Department of Labor. (2012). Notice of availability of funds and solicitation for grant applications for reintegration of ex-offenders (RExO) adult generation 5 Employment and Training Administration Retrieved from http://www.doleta.gov /grants/pdf/sga_dfa_py _11_02_final_1_11_2012.pdf van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press .
