Introduction: Counseling and Advisement

The purpose of this page is to inform counselors, instructional faculty, and other student services staff about some of the challenges that our students might face [being physically located within an institution, with learning facilitated by another institution] and offers a holistic approach to increase student success through accessibility.

As Higher Education Prison (HEP) programs expand with course offerings, degree options, and transfer opportunities, several students may not be receiving enough access to student support services. In most cases, a counselor is the first point of contact within student services, and they can serve as a vital resource to connect students to areas like disability support programs and services (DSPS), financial aid, tutoring, and Veterans services. Most colleges design paper based request forms that students can submit for services not offered inside the prison, and counselors can help to track these requests to appropriately manage each students’ case. However, it is important to understand that our incarcerated students exist within the large CDCR bureaucratic, oppressive system where their daily requests for items and services often go unanswered, or are delayed, causing our students further trauma and stress. It’s also important to pause and reflect on the fact that the California Community College system itself is an oppressive, bureaucratic system, and we should be mindful of replicating systems of oppression on top of an already oppressive state.

Counselors sit opposite inmates, who are men of color, separated by a narrow table.

(Counselors Robert Worlds and Annette Rempt hold drop-in counseling sessions at R.J. Donovan Prison.)

Counseling, usually more so than faculty teaching weekly within the carceral space, fulfills the unique role of mediating, mitigating, and reconciling two distinct, massive bureaucratic systems. Therefore, in an effort to lessen the impact on the student, colleges should make the vital effort to bring student support specialists into the prison for workshops, presentations, and one-on-one services as much as possible to build trust, increase visibility, and increase understanding on a human level.

Data continues to show us that providing consistent, holistic, high-touch, wrap-around services, such as EOPS programs, learning communities, and success team models, will benefit our most vulnerable students and these models should be replicated as much as possible for our incarcerated students.

Consistent one-on-one academic counseling ensures that students build trust and have an accurate understanding of their educational progress and goals even if their circumstances change within the semester. There are many factors that might impact the students’ success during a semester such as health issues, parole board activities, transfers, and changes in the student’s work/programming commitments. Given these possible changes in circumstances it’s important to make student education planning flexible.

In this module we offer best and promising practices for counselors working with incarcerated students as well as discuss the challenges associated with providing student support services in the carceral space. We also suggest different ways you can advocate to make student services more accessible.

Accessibility and Academia Across Contexts

Access alone doesn’t guarantee success. Our students can be more successful if more student services meet them where they are (both literally and figuratively). Yes, request forms can work, but only for those students that take or have the time to fill them out, and those that know what to ask for. But our students need to know they have actual teams of people that can assist them to meet their goals. Disabled Student Services (DSS) or Disabled Student Program Services (DSPS) is an area where most of our students are underserved. Whether it’s more time on tests, different formats for textbooks, providing audio books or ASL interpreters, most of our students would benefit from a DSS or DSPS counselor evaluation and follow up.

Advocating for DSS/DSPS representatives to visit the prison on a regular basis is a start, and it’s worth discussing with your program coordinator/lead, as well as the education coordinator on your yard(s). While imperative that college administrations establish and manage clear protocol for securing and sending on-site counselors to each facility, some college programs may not yet have such protocol in place. Teaching faculty, within the scope of our respective disciplines, are expected to advise our students. Student advisement may crossover in some distinct ways with student counseling, however, teaching faculty should be careful to avoid implicitly taking on the role (and responsibilities) of counseling faculty when/if students express a desire or need for counseling support. Accordingly, connect with the counseling faculty at your college, request/print copies of simple forms students may be able to complete on their own.

This and other student equity issues can also be supported by your local Academic Senate. As the state-wide Academic Senate creates the Rising Scholars committee, this advocacy work can start to take shape for more local Senates. If you are not involved with your local Senate consider attending a meeting or reaching out to your VP or President for guidance on issues impacting the college’s incarcerated students. In addition, the power of student voices can initiate big changes on campus. Inviting campus leaders to tour the prison to meet and interact with students increases visibility. With the student’s permission, showcasing student work such as art or poster projects on campus further increases visibility and can spread awareness of the need for more services in the prison.