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 returning citizens when acclimating to college culture. Combining qualitative research and descriptions of successful programs Part 3,“Counterspaces,” explores the dynamics of creating places within programs and classrooms that support physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual engagement for and with the formerly incarcerated through learner-centered, culturally sensitive, and racially explicit pedagogy. This book is designed to be a most welcome addition to any serious academic discussion focusing upon institutionalized racism and education’s use as a tool in reversing the mass incarceration of people of color in America.

While in no way supporting the systemic injustices and disparities of mass incarceration, Gifts from the Dark: Learning from the Incarceration Experience argues that we have much to learn from those who have been and are in prison. Schwartz and Chaney profile the contributions of literary giants, social activists, entrepreneurs, and other talented individuals who, despite the disorienting dilemma of incarceration, are models of adult transformative learning that positively impact the world. The authors interweave narratives with both qualitative and quantitative research references to analyze the role of solitude, writing, non-verbal communication; race and gender; physical exercise; education; technology; family and parenting; and the need to “give back” that precipitate transformative learning. The prison cell becomes a counterspace of metamorphosis. In focusing upon how men and women have chosen the worst moments of their lives as a baseline not to define, but to refine themselves, Gifts from the Dark promises to forever alter the limited mindset of incarceration as a solely one-dimensional, deficit event.

This book explores why Black men continue to be severely underrepresented in the STEM disciplines. It provides chapters that explore factors that lead to underrepresentation of Black males in STEM (e.g., societal traditions of what type of work is appropriate; the ruptured pipeline that leads to higher rates of attrition at every level of career development; barriers in science fields such as subtle and overt discrimination; and inequitable resources and opportunities). The premise of this volume is if Black males are to compete in an emerging global economy fueled by rapid innovation and marked by an astonishing pace of technological breakthroughs, they must be present. The book makes new contributions to the field. The collective of higher education professionals and change agents whom are tied to STEM bring cutting-edge thinking in how best to address the leaky STEM pipeline which has left the industry/workforce void of talented Black men. The volume promises timely, relevant and emergent scholarship and perspectives for STEM leadership, scholars and supporters. It provides promising practices (best practices) and recommendations in recruiting and retaining Black males in STEM disciplines and the competitive market place.

"An introduction for the second edition of a book like The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea is a less straightforward thing than it might first seem. Typically, when an author revisits a book, some years later, their ruminations center on how they may have become clearer on the ideas in their book, taken into consideration critical corrections, or maybe, generally how their own thinking has matured thanks to the miracle of living a life. But as I sit here, towards the end of 2021, experiencing a late fall in which the leaves seem to refuse to quit the trees, I am reflecting in the midst of an entirely different set of considerations"--

In the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, African Americans made up approximately twelve percent of the U.S. population but close to forty percent of the U.S. prison population. Now, in the latter half of the decade, the nation is in the midst of the largest multi-year discharge of prisoners in its history. Not surprisingly, most African Americans released from prison return to their home communities where, unfortunately, the supports needed to help them reintegrate are not available. After laying out the troubling statistics, he identifies the equally troubling ways in which media and politics have contributed to the problem, especially through stereotyping and racial bias. He reports on the growing number of black women being sent to prison and looks at governmental responses to reentry, including the shifting roles of parole officers and the use of courts in reintegrating ex-inmates into communities.

Winner, W. E. B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award presented by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists Examines the lifelong consequences of a felony conviction through the compelling words of former prisoners Felony convictions restrict social interactions and hinder felons’ efforts to reintegrate into society. The educational and vocational training offered in many prisons are typically not recognized by accredited educational institutions as acceptable course work or by employers as valid work experience, making it difficult for recently-released prisoners to find jobs. Families often will not or cannot allow their formerly incarcerated relatives to live with them. In many states, those with felony convictions cannot receive financial aid for further education, vote in elections, receive welfare benefits, or live in public housing. In short, they are not treated as full citizens, and every year, hundreds of thousands of people released from prison are forced to live on the margins of society. Convicted and Condemned explores the issue of prisoner reentry from the felons’ perspective. It features the voices of formerly incarcerated felons as they attempt to reconnect with family, learn how to acclimate to society, try to secure housing, find a job, and complete a host of other important goals. By examining national housing, education and employment policies implemented at the state and local levels, Keesha Middlemass shows how the law challenges and undermines prisoner reentry and creates second-class citizens. Even if the criminal justice system never convicted another person of a felony, millions of women and men would still have to figure out how to reenter society, essentially on their own. A sobering account of the after-effects of mass incarceration, Convicted and Condemned is a powerful exploration of how individuals, and society as a whole, suffer when a felony conviction exacts a punishment that never ends.

One of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Best Criminal Justice Books of 2019 America’s high incarceration rates are a well-known facet of contemporary political conversations. Mentioned far less often is what happens to the nearly 700,000 former prisoners who rejoin society each year. On the Outside examines the lives of twenty-two people—varied in race and gender but united by their time in the criminal justice system—as they pass out of the prison gates and back into the world. The book takes a clear-eyed look at the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated citizens as they try to find work, housing, and stable communities. Standing alongside these individual portraits is a quantitative study conducted by the authors that followed every state prisoner in Michigan who was released on parole in 2003 (roughly 11,000 individuals) for the next seven years, providing a comprehensive view of their postprison neighborhoods, families, employment, and contact with the parole system. On the Outside delivers a powerful combination of hard data and personal narrative that shows why our country continues to struggle with the social and economic reintegration of the formerly incarcerated. For further information, including an instructor guide and slide deck, please visit: http://ontheoutsidebook.us/home/instructors