Nature spoke to three US researchers who have built academic careers after they were released.
Most applications to academic institutions around the world include a box to check if a student has a criminal history, but a ‘ban the box’ movement is now under way. Last year, the UK Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) — which manages application to all British universities — dropped its criminal-history question. And in August, the US Common Application, used by 800 colleges and universities, removed the question — although individual institutions can still ask it.
A 2013 study from the RAND Corporation1, a think tank in Santa Monica, California, found that incarcerated individuals who participated in correctional education programmes were 43% less likely to return to prison after release than were those who did not.
Although 2.3 million people are currently in US prisons, fewer than 5% of people get university degrees — making them 8 times less likely to complete their education than the general public. Fewer still pursue PhDs. Nature spoke to three US researchers who went from prison to PhD programmes to senior posts in academia, and who now aim to help others to find their academic footing.
NOEL VEST: Value lived experience
Postdoc at Stanford University, California
“In 2003, my struggles with alcohol and drugs resulted in a 7-year prison sentence in Nevada for drug possession and identity theft, crimes that followed a spiral of addiction after my business and relationship failed at age 21. I began taking psychology courses in prison and, after my release, continued at the Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, with the goal of becoming a drug and alcohol counsellor. Then an instructor told me that my writing ability could get me into graduate school.
“I didn’t know what graduate school entailed, but this watershed moment started me on a scientific path. I pursued a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Washington State University in Richland, while working as a counsellor. Seeing how science influenced treatment opened my eyes to a new world, and I was accepted into graduate school at the university’s Pullman campus 2014.”