California’s Best Practices For Formerly Incarcerated Students Thriving on Campus

Wednesday March 29, 2023 | 10:00 a.m.- 11:15 a.m. PST
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Over 1,000 formerly incarcerated students are enrolled in the California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) campuses, based on the Campaign for College Opportunity’s estimate. California public postsecondary educational systems can and must do more in order to ensure justice-impacted students can access degree programs and succeed on campus by implementing practices designed to address the unique challenges these students face.

Join us on March 29, 2023, to delve into the potential solutions as we discuss California’s Best Practices For Formerly Incarcerated Students Thriving on Campus. During the event, directly impacted leaders will explore how educational institutions can best support students in order to ensure their success. 

In addition to sharing their experiences, panelists will dive into the following Best Practices:

• Students deserve faculty and staff who have received professional development training led by directly impacted individuals, through an anti-deficit framework that centers on racial equity, access, and humanizing language.
• Students should be provided academic and career counselors to evaluate transcripts and create comprehensive educational plans and advising about transfer pathways, academic majors, and career fields.
• Students should have access to pathways for graduate education and networks of support for advising on admission and letters of recommendation. 
• Students should be given work-study opportunities via OCPs collaborating with campus partners.
• Students should have access to information and resources available on campus and the surrounding community, including but not limited to the following: mental health services, food pantries, parking vouchers, child support, and computer literacy.
• Students deserve access to advising hours with campus departments, including financial aid, basic needs centers, counseling, and psychological services.
• Community resources should be available to transition students in order to provide information about employment and licensing barriers due to conviction and given assistance to obtain legal advice, as needed, to better assist their pursuit of a career.

Speakers:
Dr. James Binnall
Executive Director, Project Rebound, CSU Long Beach

Hector Cervantes
Director, Underground Scholars, UC Irvine

Jennifer Gomez
Program Coordinator, UC Irvine, Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees (LIFTED)

Joe Louis Hernandez
Director, Rising Scholars, Mt. San Antonio College

Moderated by:
Kenia Miranda Verdugo 
Program Manager, Smart Justice, Michelson 20MM

California’s Best Practices: Pathways From Prison to College, created by The Smart Justice Think Tank, provides a set of detailed strategies that stakeholders can implement to support students across three key phases of the carceral system-impacted student experience.

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