New from ASN core partner Achieving the Dream, comes a guidebook designed for institutional leaders and student success teams who want to better support justice-impacted students—those affected by the criminal justice system through incarceration, probation, or family connection.
Part of the Knowing Our Students supplemental series, this resource outlines population-specific challenges and campus-based strategies that improve student outcomes. Using a student-centered design process, the guide helps colleges identify barriers and adjust policies, practices, and support systems to meet student needs.
Read more about this guidebook from our partner Achieving The Dream.
What You’ll Find in this Guidebook:
Student Stories:
Powerful testimonials from justice-impacted students show how meaningful faculty relationships and wraparound supports change lives.
Barriers Faced by Justice-Impacted Students:
- Structural: Limited digital access, data tracking gaps
- Policy: Disclosure requirements, expungement confusion
- Cultural: Bias, stigma, and assumptions from staff and peers
Strategies That Work:
Colleges can shift outcomes by dismantling stigmas, building reentry supports, and creating trauma-informed advising and teaching practices.
Case Studies:
- Nashville State Community College (TN): Education inside correctional facilities with faculty leadership and state support
- North Central State College (OH): Community-engaged partnerships that address students’ basic and academic needs
Implementation Insights:
The guide offers practical considerations for colleges looking to start or strengthen their support for justice-impacted students. Readers will explore:
- Common challenges colleges face and how to approach them
- Lessons from institutions that have built sustainable programs
- Key roles, training needs, and relationship-building practices
- How to align support services with student goals and readiness
This guide builds on Knowing Our Students: Understanding and Designing for Success, the foundational resource from Achieving the Dream and the ASN, and is part of a supplemental series that focuses on student groups often navigating complex responsibilities—such as parenting students and adult learners—and how institutions can better support their success.
More information about supporting Inside Scholars can be found on this ASN resource page.