Alia McAdams - EDHE 833

Banning the Box

Inquiring About Criminal History in the Higher Education Admissions Process

U.S.
prisoners
account for
25% of the Education cuts the likelihood of
world's prisoners returning to prison within
inmates three years by over 40%

Racial Disparities Admissions Challenges

Less than half of the schools that collect
In 2011 60% of information on criminal histories have policies in
place for how the information may impact the
prisoners were
minorities
60% admission process

Of those schools 40% train

admissions counselors to
interpret the information
40%
Black men are 6.5 time more likely to be
put in jail than white men
Recomendations
Get rid of the question inquiring
about criminal histories
Black men born after 1960s
are more likely to spend Make the questions more specific
time in prison than to earned
4 year degrees Train admissions counselors to
make informed unbiased
admissions decisions

Depriving people of access to higher education based on a criminal

record does not make campuses safer; instead it undermines public
safety by foreclosing an opportunity that has proven to be one of the
most effective deterrents to recidivism (CCA, 2010, p. 3)
SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education (9 May 2016). Beyond the box: Increasing access to higher education for justice-involved individuals.
Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/documents/beyond-the-box/guidance.pdf AND
Center for Community Alternatives (2010). The use of criminal history records in college admissions reconsidered. Retrieved from
http://www.communityalternatives.org/pdf/Reconsidered-criminal-hist-recs-in-college-admissions.pdf