How Formerly Incarcerated People Thrive in Classrooms That Once Gave Up On Them
By Josh Pynoos
As summer is in full swing, students have graduated from high schools and colleges all around the country. Graduation marks that memorable moment where students are pushed out into the world to make their marks. For most students, high school and college are formative years, when young people explore the subjects, ideas, and opportunities that will propel them into young adulthood.
Michael Griggs is one of them. He recently graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
But Michael isn’t a typical student. He’s formerly incarcerated, spending many years of his youth and young adulthood in juvenile hall and prison.
Many formerly incarcerated students dealt with adverse experiences in the classroom from an early age, where incarceration interrupts — if not wholly stalls — their learning. For many incarcerated people, school-based punishments and lack of support by the education system were often a key factor that led to their initial contact with the justice system and incarceration.
I. “I never once had a teacher or a counselor speak to me about college”
Michael Griggs grew up in Victorville, California where he flourished in junior high as an honors student. But a placement test would adversely chart his future.
He performed poorly on a standardized test, which became a “pivotal moment” in Griggs’s life. Despite his previous educational performance and honors background, the school placed him in remedial classes, including English as a Second Language and basic math.
In his new classroom, he saw the school give no help to the students that needed it the most. The class was out of control.
“There were fights in the classroom and students would slap teachers,” Griggs said. “It was a real shock for me.”
In high school, Griggs was introduced to new elements of racial tensions, gangs, and drugs.
A few months into his first year of junior high, Griggs was caught smoking weed on campus and placed on probation. This was his first contact with the justice system and was another factor in his decline in school.
ARC Advocacy and Organizing Youth fellow, Ezekiel Nishiyama, had similar pitfalls in his early adolescence, as he was often suspended from school.
Nishiyama was treated with scorn by his teachers, “I was always getting kicked out of school. I never really stayed in the same school for too long. I was always transitioning from being expelled and starting a new school. It was a cycle. I never really focused on education.”
Nishiyama kept being pushed out, and he felt teachers treated him like law enforcement would. Nishiyama eventually was incarcerated at age 15 with only a 9th-grade education.
Griggs failed his freshman year of high school and was held back. Later, Griggs would find himself in juvenile hall. He would eventually join a gang. The gang activity at his school became his “new culture and social circle” as education took a back seat. He knew he wouldn’t graduate high school as he continued to struggle and kept getting suspended and held back. “The high school was very poor in terms of test scores and kids going to college. I never once had a teacher or a counselor speak to me about college, never one time.”
At age 19, Griggs eventually graduated high school, while incarcerated at the county jail facing a possible life sentence.
II. Unlocking Potential
In county jail, Griggs announced to his family, through a thick pane of glass, that he was a high school graduate.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Griggs wanted to continue his education but quickly became acclimated to prison life and the hardships of incarceration. His first year in prison, he was in lockdown, with no opportunities to attend school or participate in other forms of programming. So, he passed the time by reading books.
“I saw the sunlight one time in a year, and all I did was read,” Griggs added. Griggs would read book after book as all he could do was learn by himself.
Nishiyama, who was confined in the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) at age 15, knew the path out was to work on himself and continue his education. Nishiyama had his first positive experience with the classroom while incarcerated. “I had a biology teacher who came in and made learning fun,” he added. Nishiyama labored as a youth firefighter during the day at Pine Grove Conservation Camp and took classes at night.
Griggs was serving a two-strike sentence for two felonies. If he would engage in violence in prison, it could result in further punishment and trigger California’s Three Strikes law that could turn his seven-year sentence into a life sentence. Griggs sought education as a path out of prison. He still desired to continue his education and stay on the right track while he was in prison,
“In high school, I was forced to learn, but once I became incarcerated, I had this hunger to learn.” Still unable to enroll, he found other ways to learn, including by reading more books and learning to draw graphite portraits.
“Going to prison stripped me of many things; It robbed me of my friends, family, dignity, rights, and freedom,” Griggs said. “However, education was the one thing I knew that incarceration couldn’t take from me.”
“As the adage says, ‘you can lock up the body, but the mind remains free.’ Education provided me with not only knowledge but acted as an escape during my incarcerated reality,” Griggs said, referring to how his education helped him stay grounded while he was deprived of his freedom.
He would borrow books from students in the college program, and he devoured the books and textbooks cover to cover, including Michelle Alexander’s A New Jim Crow, Roberta Espinoza's Pivotal Moments, and many more.
“It was an accomplishment that I got my high school diploma and not my GED while I was inside. I graduated early by working hard. It was one of my goals”, said Nishiyama, who was incarcerated in DJJ until he turned 18. He was also able to take college-level courses while still in high school. Working and going to school helped him prepare for reentry since it was like a job, and he learned how to manage his time.
Griggs transferred prisons and was finally able to enroll in college at Ironwood State Prison, after four years of waiting to be able to enroll. He had two years left on his sentence. He passed the two classes he took with A’s. “It ha[d] been such a long time since I had received an A in anything that I did feel accomplished. It gave a sense of recognition that I was on the right path,” Griggs added. He vowed to take all the college classes he could. While inside, he earned his Associate’s Degree.
Griggs knew he would continue his passion for learning once he came home, “I would picture a life beyond the prison walls and all of the possibilities that education could provide once released. However, not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the opportunities presented to me because I decided to pursue an education.”
III. “Peer support is really important for formerly incarcerated people.”
When ARC member Cynthia Blake returned home from prison, she searched for employment, but she couldn’t find stable work because of her past convictions.
She ultimately decided to pursue an education where she could get financial aid at CSU Dominguez Hills. Blake was first drawn to working with the elderly back in school until she found it required a state license, which is hard for people with past convictions to obtain.
She was passionate about education and had the enthusiasm to share what helped change her life with others. Blake soon decided to become a professor. Additionally, becoming a professor didn’t require getting a state license, which could get denied because of her past. While incarcerated, she tried to engage with the educational program in constant flux due to lockdowns and the lackluster curriculum. Blake — who dropped out of high school at the 9th-grade level, experienced houselessness, and was later incarcerated — is now on the path to become a professor.
Blake blossomed while pursuing education. She blazed through her BA with a high GPA. She went on to complete her master’s from CSU Dominguez Hills in December 2020. Blake thrived while in college, receiving A’s for the first time, and was an honor’s student. She wrote her thesis on how education reduces recidivism for formerly incarcerated students.
Blake is now applying for her Ph.D. in criminology to become a professor. Blake added, “My long-term career trajectory to become a professor is because I like to teach people new things. I love the look on people's faces when they finally get the concept that I am teaching. I also hope that my past experiences will help someone not to give up on their future. Basically, if she can do it, so can I.”
Released in 2015, Griggs wanted to continue his education. He contacted Professor Renford Reese, who runs the Reintegration Academy, which provides training and resources to formerly incarcerated students. Griggs sought support for continuing. He was able to tour college campuses and understand the next steps he needed to take. Griggs added, “The exposure to college life solidified this is what I want to be doing.” Soon he learned about Pitzer College, where they offered a scholarship for nontraditional students who have a different background than a typical college student.
Griggs was drawn to the program and the school’s values towards social justice, where Griggs created a self-designed major in Social Justice. He learned about systemic racism, inequity, and institutional oppression. His personal experience in the justice system as well as his time advocating for juvenile justice policies and activism post-incarceration was a catalyst to pursue social justice at Pitzer. Upon graduating, Griggs felt, “ A bachelor’s degree opens the world to a host of opportunities that were previously unavailable to me, as it seems most livable wage jobs require a bachelor’s degree. But most importantly, I’m looking to apply what I’ve learned in the world and make a difference. I am passionate about the intersections between policy, education, and justice.”
Blake, who left high school after the 9th grade, struggled with writing because she returned to the classroom after almost a 30-year break. She worked tirelessly to learn and sought out help in the form of tutoring. Blake sought support from a student program at a different college. She went to the Long Beach Rising Scholars program for support, “I looked to others for a boost. Peer support is really important for formerly incarcerated people. We already feel like we don’t belong. We fight with ourselves internally. “ Blake would later help form Scholars United, a student group for formerly incarcerated students at CSU Dominguez Hills.
IV. “I could take what I learned anywhere”
While education can reduce recidivism, completing school is rare for formerly incarcerated students. Roughly 50% of formerly incarcerated people have only a high school education or GED.
But Nishiyama, Blake, and Griggs shouldn’t be viewed only through the prism of success stories and second chances. They are people who finally had a first positive experience in the classroom and found personal strength through a desire to learn. Formerly incarcerated students re-engage with education on their own terms. Now, their success in the classroom helps them overcome how the education system failed them in early childhood. They have rekindled their passion for learning as they determine their futures.
Griggs is a proud graduate with a new and bright future ahead of him but knows the events that lead up to now would be different with the proper support early in life, “I cannot help but wonder: Why did it take me going to prison for that to happen? In high school, I never once had a guidance counselor tell me I could go to college. Instead, it seemed like they were more concerned with incarcerating and punishing me than encouraging me. I know that if those same resources spent on incarcerating me were spent supporting me, I would’ve never ended up in prison.”
“It’s good to overcome my early childhood [experiences in the classroom]. Other people doubted me. My teachers and counselors used to make comments like, I would never amount to anything and they would put me down, rather than lift me up. It feels good to accomplish the goals I set out for myself and keep setting goals and move towards higher education,“ Nishiyama added. Now 19, Nishiyama hopes to enroll in college soon and return to the classroom next semester.
Griggs graduated college in May of 2021, but he knows his success is rare, “I learned that only 4% of formerly incarcerated people will have a bachelor’s degree or higher. That’s a big accomplishment for me. Going to college is hard for any student. But for someone who is formerly incarcerated, the odds are stacked against you.” Griggs added, “College is less about the piece of paper but has opened up the opportunities to become a learner. I could take what I learned anywhere.”
Through education Blake found transformation. Blake, who struggled with substance use most of her life, was in and out of AA programs. Once she completed her Master’s, she was confident that she would never go back to the streets and her previous life.
V. The Next Chapter
Griggs had to complete his education piecemeal, only enrolling in a few classes at a time because he needed to balance school and support himself financially. Griggs took a year off to focus on employment. He became a union plumber through ARC’s Apprenticeship Readiness Program.
“Everything isn’t easy for a non-traditional student. Everyone who comes out of prison faces the same obstacles. You want to make money but you also want to go to school,” Griggs said on the challenges of being a formerly incarcerated student.
But like Griggs, Blake has had to support herself. Despite her degrees, she took any job she could get. Blake mentions she had to work as a courier and a temp worker, even though she has two degrees.
Blake hopes her success will help inspire more formerly incarcerated students, “With the chance to become professor now, with felonies, shows how advocates and influencers are successfully changing the narrative and breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated people who not so long ago would have been denied the opportunity to teach based on their felony convictions.”
Formerly incarcerated students still face the ghost and the stigma of a past conviction, limiting their opportunities on the job market. Griggs has seen other formerly incarcerated people with bachelor’s degrees get turned down because of a past conviction.
Griggs knows he and formerly incarcerated students are not a success story yet, because, “There still is a lot of work to be done to expand opportunities for formerly incarcerated students. Despite our successes, there still are lots of barriers post-education. Our success story doesn’t end after a college degree”.
Griggs will have more to accomplish as he will look at graduate school next to open more options in law, public policy, or social work.
For him education was a transformative path that opened him up to so much more, “Education provided me with knowledge and an escape from my incarcerated reality. But, most importantly, education provided me with hope and possibility.”
Josh Pynoos is a Policy Associate at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC)
