Whether it is the Common Application, used by several hundred colleges and universities in the U.S., or one of their own, most applications for higher education ask about a history of incarceration.
For many, it is an innocuous box to check: “No.” You probably don’t think about it if you have never served time behind bars. However, if you have, you think about that box a lot. Every time you apply for a job and, in this case, every time you apply for school.
If you just ignore the question, your application is incomplete and you set yourself up to be asked about it again, whether on screen or in person. If you tell the truth and say “yes,” you may not be accepted. If you say “no” when you should have said yes and it gets discovered, you could be kicked out of school. Too many times, that question – that box – stops the application process altogether.
Just like the Ban the Box movement to remove questions about criminal history (at least during the initial application) when seeking employment, there is a movement underway to get colleges and universities to remove those questions from their student applications.
“More often than not, the admissions process is one of the many barriers that justice-involved people face, particularly people of color, who are disproportionately represented in our nation’s justice system,” according to a May 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Education, “Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals.”
Moreover, no correlation is found between crimes on campus and students with records of incarceration. The report states, “To the extent research exists on the issue, there are no conclusive research findings to suggest that asking about an individual’s criminal justice history during the admissions process decreases campus crime.”
The report concluded by encouraging college and university officials to look beyond the box by removing unnecessary barriers to higher education for justice-involved individuals and to demonstrate that postsecondary education can help offer students a second chance to change their lives.
In the report, “Reconsidered: The Use of Criminal History Records in College Admissions,” the Center for Community Alternatives said the collection and use of criminal justice information is problematic for a number of reasons. No link has been established between having a criminal record and posing a risk to campus safety. Having a criminal record is not an unusual characteristic in America today. It is a civil rights issue due to racial bias in the criminal justice system; criminal records are often inaccurate/misleading. And accepting college applicants with criminal records promotes public safety by opening up opportunities, enhancing critical thinking, and leading to better and more stable employment.
The center also recommends that colleges and universities should refrain from collecting and using criminal justice information in the context of college admissions.
“Given what we know about the commission of serious crimes on campus – that they are most often committed by students without criminal records – excluding people with records from attending college will only serve to create a false sense of security,” the report concludes. “Barring people with criminal records from attending college does not improve campus safety, but does undermine public safety in the larger community.”
One young man who was able to overcome the stigma of previous incarceration with the help of a college professor is Ferguson native Stan Andrisse. Immediately after he earned his undergraduate degree, the court system sent him to prison for drug offenses.
“For people with a criminal record, that box is a mountainous barrier,” Andrisse said. “It’s a psychological barrier. You see it, and your emotions immediately strike up that society doesn’t want you, that this company doesn’t want you, this school doesn’t want you.”
SLU to the rescue
The box got him too – for a while. After his release from prison, Andrisse kept getting rejection letters from graduate schools until a Saint Louis University professor vouched for him.
“I finally got accepted into Saint Louis University with the help of a former professor that I had met before I went away to prison,” he said. That professor, Barrie Bodie, is now at Northern Illinois University. “I still keep in contact with him,” Andrisse said.
Bodie would send Andrisse papers on diabetes and cancer. Andrisse’s dad had type 2 diabetes and underwent a number of amputations before succumbing to complications of the disease while his son was in prison.
“He would send me scientific articles on diabetes and the different complications, and it was really stimulating my mind,” Andrisse said. “Although I was locked up in prison, my mind was still in this stimulated state – it was not locked up.”
Andrisse went on to earn an MBA and a PhD and now works in endocrinology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
In terms of “Ban the Box,” Andrisse said he thinks many are ill-informed. He spoke before the Maryland legislature earlier this year about Ban the Box. He said it was an experience in and of itself.
“Going into something that is similar to a courtroom and testifying is not something that I am used to doing or comfortable doing,” Andrisse said. “It brought back a lot of feelings, really, to sit in that ‘courtroom’ and be recorded.”
But Andrisse felt it was very important to do it.
“Education for me has been the biggest balancer to offset my criminal convictions. But it’s not just the letters behind my name,” he said. “Education broadens horizons, tears down fences, and leads to career building. It has helped me build my personal and professional support network.”
He also said that one does not have to pursue academics to benefit from education.
“A vocational program can offer this life-changing broadening of horizons,” Andrisse said.
“I try to tell all the people around me – people that I’ve been locked up with, people that I grew up with, people that have been through the same things that I’ve been through – to let them know there is no ceiling,” Andrisse said.
“You shoot for what feel that you can get to. Don’t let somebody else tell you where you can be in life. And a lot of times, that’s exactly what happens to people coming out with a criminal record. Society tells them that they can only have this type of job, or you can only have this type of education.”
His experience prompted him to speaking out in favor of removing barriers to higher education and against the stigma on those who were previously incarcerated.
“I really hope to try to tear down these barriers of the stigma of somebody with criminal record looks like and what somebody with a criminal record can do with their life,” Andrisse said. “I believe attacking these barriers will eventually help move policy.”
Although in its early stages, Andrisse offers reentry consulting and mentoring in Baltimore and is building a team to do the same in St. Louis. It is called From Prison Cells to PhD. For more information, visit http://FromPrisonCellsToPhD.org.
Read “Reconsidered: The Use of Criminal History Records in College Admissions” by the Center for Community Alternatives at http://bit.ly/1XfMqpJ.
