White Paper Shows Successful Return to Society of Formerly Incarcerated Learners Offers Whole-of-Society Benefits

Credit for prior learning is an inherently inclusive instrument. It recognizes nontraditional learning experiences and validates them with college credit. By doing so, it improves access to and success along education-employment pathways for adult learners, particularly among traditionally underserved populations.

But one segment of adult learners is often absent in discussions of CPL's powerful potential to connect diverse populations to critical workforce opportunities: incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners. This oversight comes even though these learners often complete myriad college-level learning experiences through in-prison education and post-release reentry programs. These range from vocational training and industry-recognized certifications to traditional degree programs.

In January 2024, CAEL and College Unbound began collaborating to improve education and employment opportunities for learners impacted by the justice system. Their work focused on improving access to work-based learning and boosting the completion rates among those enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs. This week, the organizations released a white paper, available on CAEL's research page, detailing these joint efforts.

Founded in 2009, College Unbound is a nonprofit educational institution focused on adult learners who have faced significant barriers to attending college. The organization became a degree-granting institution in 2015.

"One of the earliest things we did when we were recognized by the state of Rhode Island 10 years ago was reach out to CAEL to say we were interested in exploring how to build practice in our organization and [connect] to a larger movement that CAEL's been a part of for 50 years to honor credit and lift up lifelong learning," said Adam Bush, president of College Unbound. "We need to be more than a college – and higher education as a sector needs to be more than a passive partner in supporting its learners. With a job, learners can better navigate parole and probation, and that's connected to the learning that they're doing in the world."

Collaboration in support of learners impacted by the justice system was guided by CAEL’s ALLIES (Adult Learner Leaders for Institutional Effectiveness) Framework. The ALLIES Framework is a data-driven, holistic model based on evidence-based best practices. It contains a series of planning and operational domains through which institutions can more effectively support today’s adult learners, with a focus that is as much on the process for becoming an adult learner-focused institution as it is on the programs and services that are most visible to the adult learner.

The white paper draws from insight gained through dialog with focus groups comprised of justice-involved College Unbound students and employers that have hired them. These insights reinforce the need for CPL crosswalks that link learning that occurs through the incarceration and reentry processes to college credit. They also highlight employer best practices in supporting justice-involved learners and pinpoint gaps in resources and support services. The white paper also lays out a roadmap designed to help mission-aligned funders, higher education administrators, employers, industry associations, and workforce boards interested in supporting a high-potential but undervalued talent pool.

The white paper's findings and recommendations are aimed at helping such stakeholders become more effective individually and as a combined unit. They emphasize ethical and practical benefits of including incarcerated individuals and returning citizens in education and training programs. These takeaways make clear that these benefits transcend incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals to benefit employers, educators, and, ultimately, all learners. Some of the society-wide benefits of their successful reentry include:

• Substantially reduced recidivism rates: The white paper cites a RAND Corporation finding showing that participation in educational programs reduced the likelihood of returning to prison by 43%.
• Reduced public financial burdens: The same study found that every dollar spent on prison education returns $4 to $5 in incarceration savings.
• Access to a motivated talent pool: Employers that embrace a "fair chance" hiring philosophy "tap into a motivated talent pool, reduce turnover, and contribute to community well-being."
• Access to a competency-rich talent pool: Like other adult learner populations, formerly incarcerated individuals often bring valuable but often overlooked capacities that employers can benefit from, such as:
  • Resourcefulness and resilience, hallmarks of an ability to problem solve with limited resources.
  • Being "a really good systems analyst" with the ability to "read situations around you ... quickly and deeply."
  • "A kind of a genuine humility" indicative of being approachable and a good learner.
• Reduced attrition: Especially with appropriate support services, formerly incarcerated individuals can "promote long-term employee retention associated with company loyalty."
• Wisdom that only comes from experiential learning: For certain roles, “lived experience is one of the most valuable assets. “You can call it a skill, but you can call it wisdom, knowledge, or just an understanding of things that are cultural and subjective and very subtle.”

The white paper outlines several key challenges that must be addressed to realize this rich potential. Chief among them is the siloed nature of key partners in the reentry process, including higher education, carceral spaces, workforce training, and justice, accountability, and community care functions. It points to a critical lack of integrated wraparound support, limited work-based learning opportunities, and persistent workplace stigmas against people with criminal records, who, the paper also notes, number 80 million.

Jose Rodriguez, assistant vice president for community and belonging at College Unbound, calls for swapping perspectives to better understand how overcoming these challenges presents whole-of-society opportunities. "If you do that, then all of the other variations of folks have access to the education at that same level. Let's flip it and do our best for folks who are incarcerated and then returning, and because of that, you also provide the best work for all of the students."

Student experiences documented in the white paper repeatedly emphasize the transformational power of CPL. One student, a former gang member, shared that a commitment to changing is much more challenging without a community willing to believe in that transformation. He described the turning point of his incarceration as the moment when he completed a "change studies" portfolio, fueling a commitment to change based on real experience rather than abstract theory.

According to the white paper, his story "illustrates that experience can be a powerful educator, often surpassing traditional academic instruction's depth and transformative potential. His journey compels educators, policymakers, and community leaders to broaden their conception of what counts as learning. Institutions are committed to equity and lifelong learning; in that case, they must create frameworks that validate and support individuals whose wisdom comes not from textbooks but from the trials of life itself.”

Another formerly incarcerated individual told his focus group, "Getting credits for my experiences helped boost my confidence because it showed me I didn't go through my life circumstances for no reason. Earning these credits also sped up the time it took for me to complete my degree credits and made obtaining my goals closer." This example shows how CPL can not only transform experiential learning into college credit, but perceptions of students from "passive recipients of education" to "active contributors to scholarly discourse."

Another recurring theme in the focus groups was an appreciation for the sense of community and support students received in their College Unbound programs, which stemmed from both program and peer support. Connections to community resources and "a very powerful ethos of giving back and helping others who have walked the same path" reflect core principles of the ALLIES Framework, the paper notes.

While the ALLIES framework is foremost a resource for postsecondary educators and trainers, the white paper argues that cross-sector partnerships can scale its principles within a holistic view of serving adult learners and workers. It calls for forming communities of practice dedicated to forging employer partnership opportunities for formerly incarcerated students nationwide and learning and professional development opportunities for employers and higher education institutions in these areas.

Unbound Learning: A collaborative Study can be downloaded from CAEL’s research page.