Beyond Access: Centering System-Impacted Adult Learners in Higher Education
By Christine Ferree
Introduction
In Illinois, one in four adults—approximately 2.4 million individuals—have a criminal history (Alliance for Safety and Justice, 2023). These records present enduring barriers to employment, occupational licensing, housing access, and postsecondary education opportunities (Mock, 2016).
System-impacted individuals—those directly or indirectly affected by the criminal legal system—represent a significant yet often overlooked segment of the adult learner population in postsecondary education. For many of these learners, community colleges offer a critical entry point to higher education. These inclusive institutions are uniquely positioned to serve students who are reengaging with education post-incarceration. However, access alone is not enough. To support student success, leadership across the community college landscape must develop responsive policies and practices that address the distinct needs of system-impacted learners. Just as important, system-impacted students must be meaningfully included in shaping the decisions that affect them—ensuring they have a seat at the table as institutions strive to become more inclusive and student-centered.
Estimates suggest that fewer than 10% of formerly incarcerated individuals enroll in postsecondary education, and only about 4% complete a college degree after incarceration (Couloute, 2018). These numbers are significantly lower than those of the general population. It is important to note, however, that this data likely underrepresents the true scope of system-impacted students in higher education, as many do not disclose their incarceration history due to stigma, privacy concerns, or the lack of perceived relevance to their educational journey (Yucel & Ortega, 2021). Policy practices, such as eliminating unnecessary questions about conviction history, can reduce the stigma students feel and support more accessible and inclusive practices (Vera Institute of Justice, 2023), ensuring that system-impacted students feel welcome from the very beginning of the application process. But that is just the beginning.
Community college leaders should center system-impacted students within their adult learner frameworks—not as an exception, but as an integral part of a student-centered academic community. Evidence suggests that matching individuals' aspirations with structured opportunities yields improved academic outcomes. For example, a Stanford Law School study (Silbert and Mukamal, 2020) found that nearly half of formerly incarcerated students studying at community colleges with support programs achieved a 4.0 GPA during the study period. More than 80% had a GPA higher than 3.0.
Beyond Access: The Realities of Reentry in Higher Education
Reentry is not a singular moment but a prolonged, complex transition. System-impacted students often face intersecting barriers to educational access such as unstable housing, limited income, trauma, stigma, and potential parole obligations that conflict with academic obligations. These students also tend to be older and may return to college after long educational interruptions, thus sharing many of the same challenges as most adult learners such as child care needs and employment obligations (Reynolds, Rusca, & Ibrahim, 2024).
Recent research, direct programming experience, and student voices all point to the multifaceted supports that are critical to student success for this population, including holistic academic advising, trauma-informed pedagogy, bridging the digital divide, financial assistance support, and coordinated referrals to housing, legal, and health and wellbeing resources (California Compendium of Best Practices, 2023; Yucel & Ortega, 2021). The role of peer mentorship and the importance of cultivating a culture of belonging and academic possibility for students whose educational pathways have been disrupted or marginalized by carceral systems also remain central to long-term engagement and degree completion. Colleges must confront the "hidden curriculum"—the set of unspoken norms and assumptions that often exclude system-impacted learners, who are unfamiliar with these expectations, by creating clear and accessible support systems (Halkovic & Greene, 2015).
Promising Practices from the Field
Research continues to affirm what practitioners have long known: system-impacted students succeed when they have access to tailored, holistic support systems.
Programs like the Education Justice Project (EJP) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign illustrate both the promise and challenge of this work. EJP, a college-in-prison program operating since 2008, only recently saw its first student successfully transfer and matriculate to campus. This speaks volumes about the structural and systemic barriers facing students who pursue college after incarceration, even when they have completed rigorous academic work on the inside.
To help close these post-release gaps, EJP established the Prison-to-Gown Pathway (PGP), a support initiative designed for system-impacted individuals transitioning into or returning to higher education. PGP provides holistic wraparound services including academic guidance, social integration and peer support, career readiness resources, and coordinated reentry referrals to help mitigate campus barriers and foster long-term student success.
A 2023 study conducted at Elgin Community College by the Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University explored the experiences of justice-impacted students and offered concrete recommendations for improving support structures. Students who were interviewed emphasized the value of flexible, responsive services such as help navigating financial aid, access to food assistance, and the ability to adjust academic plans due to reentry-related obligations. Just as critical were the relationships they built with staff who demonstrated understanding and withheld judgment. These findings echo broader calls for trauma-informed, relationship-centered advising that validates lived experience. The study ultimately recommended the development of a reentry-specific orientation, the appointment of a dedicated staff member to support justice-impacted students, expanded access to financial resources, and professional development for faculty and staff to increase awareness of stigma and systemic inequities (Reynolds, Rusca, & Ibrahim, 2024).
These recommendations align closely with national best practices and underscore the need for coordinated institutional efforts rather than one-off interventions. The report concluded by stating, “while community colleges around the country may be engaging with this work, there are very few that are sharing their work and experiences online” (Reynolds, Rusca, & Ibrahim, 2024).
Furthermore, a 2021 study exploring advising experiences of formerly incarcerated students in the California community college system found that reentry programs served as crucial hubs of support. Students highlighted the importance of consistent, compassionate advisors who understood their unique challenges—many of whom had experience with the criminal legal system themselves. These programs provided gas cards, laptops, tutoring, community check-ins, and critical affirmation to support students as they continued their educational journey. Peer mentorship and support programs led by those with lived experience have shown particularly promising results, offering both academic and emotional support that can surpass traditional advising in terms of impact (Murillo, 2021).
Barriers at the Institutional Level
Despite progress, many community colleges continue to erect administrative and cultural barriers to student success. For example, some institutions still ask about criminal history after admission, even when such disclosures have no bearing on a student's academic readiness. Research shows that requiring disclosure—even post-admission—can reduce application and enrollment rates by as much as 12% (Rosenthal et al., 2015). Syrita Steib, a system-impacted scholar, advocate, and executive director of Operation Restoration, has noted that these questions “can reinforce stigma and discourage qualified students from applying at all,” creating a deeper divide between institutional commitments to access and the lived realities of system-impacted students (Vera Institute of Justice, 2023).
While eliminating criminal history questions on applications is essential to reducing stigma and promoting access, it is equally important to recognize that some educational pathways—including nursing and teaching—still require mandatory background checks later in the process to obtain licensure (Mock 2016). Yet students often receive little guidance about which fields have these requirements or how to navigate waivers, petitions, and appeals processes. Without clear, proactive career advising and well-informed faculty and staff, students may self-select out of certain programs unnecessarily, despite being eligible. Making information readily accessible through advising appointments and departmental websites can help students make informed decisions without having to disclose their histories prematurely. This transparency reduces uncertainty, counters stigma, and encourages enrollment in fields where their skills and perspectives are critically needed.
Additional administrative barriers—such as locating transcripts, inflexible office hours or class times, and lack of clarity around financial aid and enrollment—often pose more significant challenges than gaining admissions to higher education alone. These barriers are compounded by institutional cultures that continue to view system-impacted students through deficit-based lenses, positioning them as risky rather than as resilient learners (Halkovic & Greene, 2015).
The dilemma of whether to disclose one's incarceration history weighs heavily on students. Some hope to foster connection through transparency, while others fear the social and institutional stigma that such a disclosure might trigger. As Buitrago and Escobar-Schulz (2020) emphasize, the collateral consequences of a record can follow a person indefinitely—impacting housing, employment, and access to public benefits, all of which directly shape the educational journey.
Recommendations for Community College Leaders
To meet the needs of system-impacted adult learners, community college leaders must move from passive inclusion to active engagement. Below are some key recommendations:
1. Eliminate Unnecessary Criminal History Disclosures
Unless required for specific licensure pathways or programs, remove questions about criminal history from post-admission intake processes. Ensure any required disclosures are accompanied by clear, non-punitive policies and an appeals process.
2. Equip Staff and Advisors with Career-Specific GuidanceStaff and advisors should be trained to clearly outline which programs or careers require disclosure of a criminal record and to explain waiver or petition options. Proactively sharing this information empowers system-impacted students to make informed decisions without unnecessary discouragement or disclosure.
3. Build and Normalize Support Services
Designate liaisons to support system-impacted students. Train staff and faculty on trauma-informed and reentry-aware advising practices. Institutions should embed support across existing structures—tutoring, financial aid, counseling, for example—so students do not have to self-identify or disclose to receive appropriate help.
4. Invest in Peer-Led Community Building
Support compensated peer mentorship programs that center on lived experience. These programs provide both academic and emotional support, reduce stigma, and affirm the value of lived expertise.
5. Include System-Impacted Voices in Decision-Making
Create advisory roles, campus task forces, or paid consultation opportunities for formerly incarcerated students to shape the policies and programs meant to support them.
Conclusion: Reimagining Belonging through Campus Practice
System-impacted students are already present on community college campuses, navigating barriers that are often invisible to those around them. Their presence challenges institutions to expand the definition of adult learners and to confront the ways in which higher education policies can inadvertently perpetuate exclusion.
As colleges strive to cultivate responsive and student-centered environments, system-impacted learners must be seen not as outliers, but as essential members of the academic community. Their needs illuminate gaps in current systems, and their successes offer blueprints for what is possible when institutions lead with empathy, flexibility, and intentionality.
Community colleges are uniquely positioned to model inclusive policy reform at scale. By embedding supports, removing unnecessary barriers, and honoring lived expertise, they can become true engines of social mobility for system-impacted students—and, by extension, for the communities they serve.
References
Alliance for Safety and Justice. (2023). Clean Slate Illinois. https://livefreeillinois.org/clean-slate-illinois
Buitrago, K., & Escobar-Schulz, S. (2020, June). Never fully free: The scale and impact of permanent punishments on people with criminal records in Illinois. Heartland Alliance. https://www.heartlandalliance.org/neverfullyfree
California Compendium of Best Practices. (2023). Pathways from prison to college: A California compendium. Renewing Communities Initiative.
Couloute, L. (2018). Getting back on course: Educational exclusion and attainment among formerly incarcerated people. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/education.html
Halkovic, A., & Greene, A. C. (2015). Bearing stigma, carrying gifts: What colleges can learn from students with incarceration experience. The Urban Review, 47(4), 759–782. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0333-x
Mock, L. (2016). The impact of employment restriction laws on Illinois' convicted felons. Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. https://icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/articles/the-impact-of-employment-restriction-laws-on-illinois-convicted-felons
Murillo, R. (2021). Checking the box: Enduring the stigma of applying to graduate school post-incarceration. In M. E. López & R. Sparkman (Eds.), Beyond the Box: Equitable admissions policies for justice-impacted individuals (pp. 11–14). Underground Scholars.
Reynolds, G. M., Rusca, E., & Ibrahim, D. (2024). Supporting justice-impacted students: Recommendations for Elgin Community College. Northern Illinois University, Center for the Study of Education Policy. https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/ctredsystems-reportspubs/32
Rosenthal, A., NaPier, E., Warth, P., & Weissman, M. (2015). Boxed out: Criminal history screening and college application attrition. Center for Community Alternatives. https://niccc.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/resources/boxed-out-criminal-history-screening-and-college-application-attrition
Silbert, R., & Mukamal, D. (2020). Striving for success: The academic achievements of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students in California community colleges. Corrections to College California and Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
Vera Institute of Justice. (2023, May 9). The box: How the conviction history question shapes college admissions. https://www.vera.org/news/the-box-how-the-conviction-history-question-shapes-college-admissions
Yucel, E., & Ortega, J. (2021). “These people really rooted for me”: An exploration of formerly incarcerated students’ advising experiences. National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition Research Brief. https://sc.edu/nrc/system/pub_files/1629743468_0.pdf