A qualitative examination of postsecondary education as a remedy to recidivism among formerly incarcerated African-American men

The most recent national-level study on recidivism (when prisoners are reincarcerated for a new crime) conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 1994 revealed that within 3 years of release, 67.5% of stated prisoners were rearrested for a new offense and most notably, within 3 months of release, roughly 30% of the inmates had been rearrested. In the United States recidivism is extraordinarily high, ranging from 41% to 71% (Karpowitz & Kenner, 2010). The current penal system in the US has abandoned rehabilitation as a goal for inmates in favor of profits. Today’s prisons are more than just a place to send the criminally inclined of our society—they have become a source of cheap labor and increased profits for various industries (Brewer & Heitzeg, 2008). Instead of functioning as an institution where people go to pay a debt to society, prisons and prisoners are viewed as commodities. Taking that into consideration, the research questions which motivate this study are: How are formerly incarcerated African American men able to acquire postsecondary education within the prison industrial system and How does post-secondary education (or formal job training) contribute to preventing recidivism among African-American men. This study will employ a Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2006) framework to utilize the personal stories of formerly incarcerated African American men between 18-60 years old who have attained postsecondary education (or formal job training) and not recidivated, in order to examine how former prisoners obtained postsecondary education and avoided recidivism. Additionally, the study intends to contribute former prisoner's stories to the predominately quantitative data available on recidivism.