Decarceral, Disabled, and Reparative Futures in Higher Education

Abstract

In recent years, the intersection of education and carceral systems has garnered increased attention as scholars and practitioners actively work to dismantle pervasive constraints that sustain carceral logics in educational settings. Collaborating with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated scholars in the context of researching higher education in prison initiatives nationwide is a moral obligation of IHEs. Yet, the collective knowledges have been excluded by punitive gatekeeping practices that decide what expertise looks and sounds like — and who and where it comes from. This collection of papers facilitates the inclusion of diverse perspectives in academic inquiry but also amplifies the voices of those directly impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline. Perspective one investigates the importance of community and the significance of a transition community within a justice-impacted, higher education spaces; perspective two presents the critical analyses examining how researchers and participants in an academic re-entry and higher education in prison program and a department of urban education created life-affirming post-secondary opportunities rooted in decarceration, disability justice, and reparative futures.