Critical Perspectives on Race, Crime, and Justice - Race, Education, and Reintegrating Formerly Incarcerated Citizens

This timely, readable text offers an authoritative and balanced analysis of how racially driven policies in America impact post release education as a leading pathway to social reintegration. Compelling research findings from an assemblage of college faculty, seasoned administrators, and criminal justice professionals are interwoven with first-person narratives from formerly incarcerated individuals. This book takes full advantage of its interdisciplinary mixture of voices and positionality to build its argument upon a three-part framework from Critical Race Theory (CRT). It convincingly utilizes the tools of academic research, counterstories, and counterspaces to make a persuasive case that the intersection of race, the criminal justice system, and education represent one of the greatest civil rights issues of our time. Part 1, “Context, Critical Race Theory and College Re-Entry,” explores the historical and current dynamics of these uniquely American intersections while linking Critical Race Theory with the field of re-entry and offering serious analysis of post incarceration and education initiatives. Interest convergence, white privilege, and writing from returning citizens as a way of “coming to voice” are also explored in this section. Part 2, “Counterstories,” offers case, comparative case, and phenomenological studies that include embedded quotations with first-person narratives contributed from formerly incarcerated students and graduates. This section also includes an honest and gripping analytic auto-ethnography from the book’s co-editor who readily reveals his experiences as both a faculty member and formerly incarcerated individual. Other highlighted topics include the issues of stigma, overcoming obstacles in the classroom, and the unique problems for…