Career Thoughts of Incarcerated Students

Abstract

In 2018, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released the results of a nine-year longitudinal study that among 412,731 inmates released in 2005, 84% of them were rearrested. This high recidivism rate shows a clear need for reentry intervention to reduce these rates. A key part of reentry intervention should include career readiness, which helps individuals attain skills and education that are congruent to the skills needed in the labor force. Providing career assistance and interventions to those entering the workforce is understanding an individual’s desire and motivation in career and education, and negative career thoughts predict job attainment and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the career thoughts of incarcerated students and determine if intersections of their identities effect their career thoughts using the Career Thoughts Inventory and demographic information. The intersections examined include (a) re-offense, (b) disability status, (c) education level, and (d) employment experience. This study focuses on investigating the career thoughts of incarcerated students at a technical college serving only incarcerated adults. Results of this study indicate that these intersections do not have a significant difference with incarcerated students’ career thoughts.