Identity-driven theories of desistance provide a useful model for understanding change in a carceral context. However, these theories often are not grounded in specific programmes or practices that might catalyze identity shift, and tend to focus narrowly on recidivism as the sole outcome of interest. In this study, we examine the role of prison higher education in identity-driven change through the process of transformative learning. Using administrative information on college-level course completion and an original longitudinal survey of prison college students, we show evidence of both between- and within-subjects shifts in individuals’ sense of self-efficacy, as well as their broader civic orientation. We further explore the role of identity using a survey experiment that randomly assigns individuals to a “student” versus “prisoner” identity label. We find that identity labelling has significant effects on both confidence in accomplishing one's goals and perceived likelihood of recidivism. We supplement these quantitative findings with qualitative interviews of prison college alumni. Our study suggests that access to higher education can be consequential for those in prison, and provides a broader framework through which to analyze the effects of prison programming that extends beyond recidivism.
AdamsKBennettKJFlanaganTFMarquartJWCuvelierSJFritschEGerberJLongmireDRBurtonVS (1994) A large-scale multidimensional test of the effect of prison education programs on offenders’ behavior. The Prison Journal74(4): 433–449.
2.
AosSMillerMDrakeE (2007) Evidence-based public policy options to reduce future prison construction, criminal justice costs, and crime rates. Federal Sentencing Reporter19(4).
3.
BenchLLAllenTD (2003) Investigating the stigma of prison classification: an experimental design. The Prison Journal83(4): 367–382.
4.
BerecocheaJEGibbsJB (1991) Inmate classification: a correctional program that works?Evaluation Review15(3): 333–363.
5.
BerkRALeeuwJd (1999) An evaluation of california’s inmate classification system using a generalized regression discontinuity design. Journal of the American Statistical Association94(448): 1045–1052.
6.
BozickRSteeleJDavisL, et al. (2018) Does providing inmates with education improve postrelease outcomes? A meta-analysis of correctional education programs in the United States. Journal of Experimental Criminology14(3): 389–428.
7.
BukstelLHKilmannPR (1980) Psychological effects of imprisonment on confined individuals. Psychological Bulletin88(2): 469–493.
8.
BushwaySPaternosterR (2014) Identity and desistance from crime. In: HumphreyJACordellaP (eds) Effective Interventions in the Lives of Criminal Offenders. New York, NY: Springer New York, pp.63–77.
9.
CarnevaleAPCheahBRoseSJ (2011) The College Pay Off. Report, 1 November. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
10.
ChenMKShapiroJM (2007) Do harsher prison conditions reduce recidivism? A discontinuity-based approach. American Law and Economics Review9(1): 1–29.
11.
ChenYLiSX (2009) Group identity and social preferences. American Economic Review99(1): 431–457.
12.
ChristieBAMillerKKCookeRWhiteJG (2015) Environmental sustainability in higher education: what do academics think?Environmental Education Research21(5): 655–686.
13.
CrantonP (2010) Transformative learning in an online environment. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology (IJAVET)1(2): 1–9.
14.
DavisLMBozickRSteeleJL, et al. (2013) Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of Programs That Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults. Rand Corporation.
15.
DavisLMSteeleJLBozickR, et al. (2014) How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here? The Results of a Comprehensive Evaluation. Rand Corporation.
16.
Deil-AmenR (2011) Socio-academic integrative moments: rethinking academic and social integration among two-year college students in career-related programs. The Journal of Higher Education82(1): 54–91.
17.
DeterdingNM (2015) Instrumental and expressive education: college planning in the face of poverty. Sociology of Education88(4): 284–301.
18.
DuweGClarkV (2014) The effects of prison-based educational programming on recidivism and employment. The Prison Journal94(4): 454–478.
19.
FarrallSMarunaS (2004) Desistance-focused criminal justice policy research: introduction to a special issue on desistance from crime and public policy. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice43(4): 358–367.
20.
FineMTorreMEBoudinKBowenIClarkJHyltonDMartinezMRobertsRASmartPUpeguiD (2001) The impact of college in a maximum-security prison. Report, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York & Women in Prison at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
21.
FreireP (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
22.
FryeM (2012) Bright futures in malawi’s new dawn: educational aspirations as assertions of identity. American Journal of Sociology117(6): 1565–1624.
23.
GaesGGCampSD (2009) Unintended consequences: experimental evidence for the criminogenic effect of prison security level placement on post-release recidivism. Journal of Experimental Criminology5(2): 139–162.
24.
GiordanoPCCernkovichSARudolphJL (2002) Gender, crime, and desistance: toward a theory of cognitive transformation. American Journal of Sociology107(4): 990–1064.
25.
GreenstoneMLooneyA and Facebook (2011) College: Expensive, but a smart choice. The Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug.
26.
HardingDJMorenoffJDWyseJ (2019) On the Outside. University of Chicago Press.
27.
HarerMD (1995) Prison education program participation and recidivism: A test of the normalization hypothesis. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Prisons, Office of Research and Evaluation, 182.
28.
HealyD (2013) Changing fate? Agency and the desistance process. Theoretical Criminology17(4): 557–574.
29.
HeidemannGCederbaumJAMartinezSLeBelTP (2016) Wounded healers: How formerly incarcerated women help themselves by helping others. Punishment & Society18(1): 3–26.
30.
HickertABushwaySNieuwbeertaPDirkzwagerAJ (2021) Confinement as a two–stage turning point: Do changes in identity or social structure predict subsequent changes in criminal activity?Criminology; An Interdisciplinary Journal59(1): 73–108.
31.
HooksB (1989) Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (Vol. 10). South End Press.
32.
HooksB (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. London, England: Routledge.
33.
HugoV (2010) The Works of Victor Hugo. BookCaps Study Guides.
34.
JamanDRDickoverRMBennettLA (1972) Parole outcome as a function of time served. British Journal of Criminology12: 5.
35.
JohnsonBR (2004) Religious programs and recidivism among former inmates in prison fellowship programs: a long-term follow-up study. Justice Quarterly21(2): 329–354.
36.
JohnsonR (2002) Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison. Wadsworth Belmont, CA.
37.
JonesN (2018) The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption (Vol. 6). Univ of California Press.
38.
KimRHClarkD (2013) The effect of prison-based college education programs on recidivism: propensity score matching approach. Journal of Criminal Justice41(3): 196–204.
39.
KingRDMcDermottK (1995) The State of Our Prisons. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
40.
KuhlmannA (2006) Prison dances: teaching and learning behind bars. Humanity and Society30(3): 237–253.
41.
LangenbachMNorthMYAagaardL, et al. (1990) Televised instruction in oklahoma prisons: a study of recidivism and disciplinary actions. Journal of Correctional Education41(2): 87–94.
42.
LattimorePKWitteADBakerJR (1990) Experimental assessment of the effect of vocational training on youthful property offenders. Evaluation Review14(2): 115–133.
43.
LeBelTPBurnettRMarunaS, et al. (2008) The `chicken and egg’ of subjective and social factors in desistance from crime. European Journal of Criminology5(2): 131–159.
44.
LeBelTPRichieMMarunaS (2015) Helping others as a response to reconcile a criminal past: the role of the wounded healer in prisoner reentry programs. Criminal Justice and Behavior42(1): 108–120.
45.
LemertEM (1951) Social Pathology: A Systematic Approach to the Study of Sociopathic Behavior. New York: McGraw Hill.
46.
LermanAE (2013) The Modern Prison Paradox: Politics, Punishment, and Social Community. Cambridge University Press.
47.
LindenRPerryL (1984) An evaluation of a prison education program. Canadian Journal of Criminology26(1): 65–73.
48.
MacFarquharL (2016) Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help. Penguin.
49.
MacKenzieDL (2006) What Works in Corrections: Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders and Deliquents. Cambridge University Press.
50.
MadsenSRCookBJ (2010) Transformative learning: UAE, women, and higher education. Journal of Global Responsibility1(1): 127–148.
51.
MarunaS (2001) Making Good (Vol. 86). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
52.
MarunaSLeBelTPLanierCS (2004) Generativity behind bars: some ‘redemptive truth’ about prison society. In: The Generative Society: Caring for Future Generations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp.131–151.
MezirowJ (1997a) Transformation theory out of context. Adult Education Quarterly48(1): 60–62.
55.
MezirowJ (1997b) Transformative learning: theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education1997(74): 5–12.
56.
MezirowJ (2003) Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education1(1): 58–63.
57.
Oakford P, Brumfield C, Goldvale C, et al. (2019). Investing in Futures: Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Postsecondary Education in Prison. New York, NY: Vera Institute of Justice.
58.
OpsalT (2012) ‘Livin’ on the straights’: identity, desistance, and work among women post-incarceration*. Sociological Inquiry82(3): 378–403.
59.
ParrottaKThompsonG (2011) Sociology of the prison classroom: marginalized identities and sociological imaginations behind bars. Teaching Sociology39(2): 165–178.
60.
PaternosterRBushwayS (2009) Desistance and the ‘feared self’: toward an identity theory of criminal desistance. The Journal of Criminal Law And Criminology (1973–)99(4): 1103–1156.
61.
RocqueMPosickCPaternosterR (2016) Identities through time: an exploration of identity change as a cause of desistance. Justice Quarterly33(1): 45–72.
62.
RoyerCECastroELLermanAEGouldMR (2021) Understanding the landscape of higher education in prison survey: 2018–2019. Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.
63.
RumgayJ (2004) Scripts for safer survival: pathways out of female crime. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice43(4): 405–419.
64.
RutterM (2012) Resilience as a dynamic concept. Development and Psychopathology24(2): 335–344.
65.
ShaplandJBottomsA (2011) Reflections on social values, offending and desistance among young adult recidivists. Punishment & Society13(3): 256–282.
66.
SmartJCPascarellaET (1986) Self-concept development and educational degree attainment. Higher Education15(1–2): 3–15.
67.
Smith L and Digard L (2020) From Corrections to College in California: An Evaluation of Student Support During and after Incarceration. Vera Institute of Justice.
68.
Snow DA and Anderson L (1987). Identity work among the homeless: the verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology 92(6): 1336–1371.
69.
SpencerSJSteeleCMQuinnDM (1999) Stereotype threat and women’s math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology35(1): 4–28.
70.
SteeleCMAronsonJ (1995) Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology69(5): 797.
71.
StoneR (2016) Desistance and identity repair: redemption narratives as resistance to stigma. The British Journal of Criminology56(5): 956–975.
72.
SykesGM (1958) The Society of Captives. Princeton University Press.
73.
TaylorEWCrantonP (2012) The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice. John Wiley & Sons.
74.
TochH (2008) Cumulative default: the cost of disruptive prison careers. Criminal Justice and Behavior35(8): 943–955.
75.
TylerJHKlingJR (2006) Prison-based education and re-entry into the mainstream labor market. Working Paper Series 12114, Working Paper, March. National Bureau of Economic Research.
76.
U.S. Department of Education (2021) U.S. Department of Education Announces It Will Expand the Second Chance Pell Experiment for the 2022–2023 Award Year, July.
77.
ValentinoNAHutchingsVLWhiteIK (2002) Cues that matter: how political ads prime racial attitudes during campaigns. American Political Science Review96(1): 75–90.
78.
WalkerN (1987) Crime and Criminology: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
79.
WeissmanM (2009) Aspiring to the impracticable: alternatives to incarceration in the era of mass incarceration. New York University Review of Law and Social Change 33: 235–269.
80.
WilsonDBGallagherCAMackenzieD (2000) A meta-analysis of corrections-based education, vocation, and work programs for adult offenders. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency37(4): 347–368.
81.
WinterfieldLCoggeshallMBurke-StorerM, et al. (2009) The Effects of Postsecondary Correctional Education: ‘Final Report’. Urban Institute. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED508247 (accessed 19 July 2021).
82.
WrightR (2014) Identities, education and reentry (part one of two): identities and performative spaces. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry1(1): 32–41.
83.
ZimmermanSD (2014) The returns to college admission for academically marginal students. Journal of Labor Economics32(4): 711–754.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
