Beyond Incarcerated Identities: Identity, Bias and Barriers to Higher Education in Australian Prisons

Incarcerated students face multiple obstacles and constraints while attempting to complete tertiary and pre-tertiary educational programs within Australian prisons. Some of these barriers relate to the individual's attitudes and actions, during and prior to imprisonment, while other barriers may relate to systemic bias and social disadvantages, which the individual cannot control. The classed and racialized realities of Australia's criminal justice system are evident in the dramatically disproportionate rate of imprisonment of Indigenous people, and in Australian state governments' increasingly punitive approach to crime and sentencing which typically captures already excluded and marginalised populations. This prevailing ‘criminology of the other,' creates particular tensions for incarcerated students, who are typically attempting to construct positive student identities, as an alternative to being defined as ‘other,' ‘criminal' or ‘deviant.' Using data from a focus group discussion with 12 male incarcerated students inside an Australian prison, this article gives voice to our incarcerated university students, their attempts to construct new horizons for the self through education, and the numerous barriers they encounter along the way.