CORRECTION: A previous version of this story provided an incorrect time and incorrectly stated Rosa Martinez’s job title.
Formerly incarcerated students will speak about their struggles in the justice system and experiences of transitioning from community college to university at a transfer event panel on Thursday, hosted by LBCC’s Justice Scholars Program.
“Through the experiences of our graduates and other formerly incarcerated students, we hope they’re inspired. Each panelist has their own unique story, and we want students to see they are not alone as they walk this journey through higher education,” said Rosa Martinez, Justice Scholars program specialist.
The panel will be open for anyone to attend and will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Liberal Arts Campus in Building W, Room 201, with attendees able to RSVP.
After the student panel, the event will have a transfer fair until 2 p.m., where reentry organizations will be present to support formerly incarcerated students as they transition back into society after prison.
A program that will be present is Project Rebound, which aims to help formerly incarcerated students to apply to and transfer to Cal States, assisting with applications, questions about the campuses and to point students to resources at their prospective campus.
Other reentry programs will be there to help with employment, housing, addiction, guilt and shame, and coping with family separation.
The Justice Scholars Program serves formerly incarcerated, system-involved, and system-impacted students, supporting them from application to graduation.
“Everyone’s different, but with (JSP), I’m not different. I can do this, I can succeed. Whatever resources they can provide, whether it’s a cup of coffee in the morning to put some pep in your step, a snack, or a safe place to sit down and study, do homework, or just someone to talk to, they’re there ,” said Jason Hagan, a first-semester student.
Hagan spent half of his life in prison. Being in and out of trouble and still on parole, coming back to school was “one of the most positive things” he’s done in his life.
Many rising scholars who have made that first step to return to school have had similar experiences, feeling scared and unsure if they belong. One student even expressed that it was more intimidating walking on campus than walking in a prison yard.
“I was an addict for 30 years, from juvenile to adulthood. I got sober, but I was still struggling. I was having negative thoughts, and I said, ‘Let me go back to school,’ and that’s what I did. But it was hard at first. I came with a completely different vocabulary, oftentimes people would report me, saying, ‘This guy’s conversations are not conducive to a college campus.’ But then I met people like Rosa Martinez, who showed me a different way, how to better conduct myself in an environment I was never exposed to,” said Brian Keith Burten, an LBCC student who works for JSP.
Efrain Lopez, an LBCC alumni who transferred to Cal State Long Beach will be speaking at the event, and he shared his struggles entering education after incarceration.
Coming out of prison, he knew nothing about college or the process of signing up for classes and financial aid and felt uncomfortable talking to people who didn’t understand his struggles.
“Being able to talk to people like Sara and Rosa, who understood me, that was a significant part of my educational journey,” said Lopez. “There were so many times I felt like I bothered people. Other programs I asked for help would direct me to their website. I’d think, ‘Wait a minute, I’m asking these questions because I don’t know how to navigate these websites.’ They just didn’t understand that I wasn’t as tech-savvy as others.”
A mundane task like logging into a computer may be simple for the average student, but for those who just served a 10-year sentence, it’s a whole new world.
Terms like “student portals” and “online courses” are unfamiliar to students returning to school after incarceration.
“College is way different than it was about 13 years ago. … When I was in school 10 years ago, I was struggling, and they didn’t have places to take showers or safe places to sleep in my car. Now there are programs and counselors who will sit with you one-on-one and assist you as you transition from life on the streets,” said Annette Hernandez, a returning student and friend of Burten.
Participants will be able to hear more in-depth about the experiences and struggles of formerly incarcerated transfer students at the panel.
