Advocacy

Access to Higher Education

We’re working to build a prison-to-university pipeline by increasing the number of formerly incarcerated people in higher education. We do this by supporting the development of similar programs at other colleges and by advocating for policies that increase access to higher education for all currently and formerly incarcerated people. We work with admissions professionals, deans and faculty on UC and community college campuses to eliminate barriers to higher education faced by criminal justice-impacted students and advocate on their behalf in cases involving their parole and probation officers.

Individual Advocacy

Our program staff provides advocacy and support for students who are facing barriers to education or employment or are on parole and probation.

UC System Advocacy

We advocate within the UC system to make UC campuses more accessible and safe for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students. We are currently advocating for the expansion of the Underground Scholars model, an accessible UC application for our incarcerated students and creating more resources to address the specific barriers formerly incarcerated UC students face.

Legislative/Ballot Advocacy

In partnership with formerly incarcerated students throughout the state, our student leaders engage in legislative advocacy to remove barriers and create opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students. 

  • Restoring Cal Grant to Incarcerated Students, SB 575 (2019): SB 575 would’ve restored Cal Grants to incarcerated students. Underground Scholar, Aminah Elster, provided expert testimony for SB 575. Partners: Senator Bradford, Root and Rebound, Project Rebound, Anti Recidivism Coalition, #Cut50, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Corrections to College CA and others. 
  • Parole Reform for Education, AB 277, AB 2342 (2019, 2020): to allow people on parole to earn early release from parole for completing college and other educational programs. USP student leader, Daniela Medina, provided expert testimony for AB 277 in the Public Safety Committee in 2019. AB 277 didn't pass in 2019 so we tried again in 2020 with AB 2342 which was passed by the legislature but vetoed by the Governor. Partners: Assemblymember McCarty, Anti Recidivism Coalition, #Cut50, Californians for Safety and Justice, Root and Rebound, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Project Rebound, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Initiate Justice,  ACLU and others. 
  • Banning the Box in Higher Education, SB 118 (2020): USP was involved in the coalition that helped pass SB 118 which banned the box asking about criminal convictions on all California college applications. Partners: Senator Skinner, Root & Rebound, LSPC, Project Rebound, #Cut50 and others. 

Propositions: In 2020, USI also supported the winning campaign to pass Prop 17 to restore voting rights to people on parole and the successful campaign to oppose Prop 20 which would have rolled back key criminal justice reforms and returned to a ‘tough-on-crime’ approach to public safety.

Language

We advocate for the use of humanizing language when referring to people with convictions. Our common vernacular - in conversation, in the law, in media and academia - is filled with dehumanizing language. We denounce labels like “felon”, “ex-offender”, “inmate”,  and “criminal” and insist on being called what we are - people. The common term is formerly incarcerated (FI) people and systems impacted (SI) people.

USI Language Guide

Increasing attention is being given to the language people use when discussing individual or group identities and experiences. In large part, marginalized people must demand respect to create and amplify language that they consider more humanizing than the negative narratives imposed on us by the dominant society. The late Eddie Ellis, a wrongfully convicted member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, established the first academic think tank run by formerly incarcerated people: Center for NuLeadership. Paroling in 1994 with multiple degrees, Ellis worked to advance the dialogue around those who have been system-impacted. Twenty-five years later, our collective struggle to be recognized for the fullness of who we are as people remain.

Language is not merely descriptive, it is creative. For too long we have borne the burden of having to recreate our humanity in the eyes of those who would have us permanently defined by a system that grew directly out of the the institution of American slavery, an institution that depended on the dehumanization of the people it enslaved. It is in this spirit that we, the formerly incarcerated and system-impacted academics who identify as the Underground Scholars Initiative (USI) at the University of California, Davis, call on the media, students, and public to utilize the following terminology when discussing our population individually or collectively. This is not about euphemisms or glossing over people's actions rather it is about reclaiming our identity as people first. It is important to note that this style guide is equally applicable when talking about similarly situated populations outside the United States.