Trauma in Incarcerated Environments: Student Voices

Still from animated video with back of dog's head looking ahead at a child in the distance pointing toward the dog.

Trauma in Incarcerated Environments: Student Voices

The purpose of this page is to center trauma-informed experiences which inform the lives and voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students.

These animated short films vibrantly channel the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students, and now graduates, of the Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies program at California State Prison in Lancaster, Los Angeles County. Enrolled through California State University, Los Angeles, many students from this program first completed general education coursework and earned Associates degrees through California community college and other educational programs while incarcerated.

Students’ reasons for pursuing higher education while incarcerated vary widely. Students may pursue a college education as an active and deliberate response to trauma-informed, and trauma-informing experiences. Put another way, students' pursuit of higher education may be a means to more critically understand traumatic past experiences expressly related to their present experiences with incarceration. At the same time, students completing college-level coursework while incarcerated will almost inevitably encounter coursework centering analyses, observations, and discussions about distinct and significant experiences with lived and sustained trauma.

“Retelling Life Experiences to Make Sense of Trauma,” by the Late Terry Don Evans (Narrated by Allen Burnett)

Trauma prompt / Content Warning: This video discusses death, loss, and adverse engagement with law enforcement.

“On the Evolution of a Trauma-Informed Approach” by Robert Mosely

Trauma prompt / Content warning: This video addresses adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and death.