This volume follows one man's revolutionary journey from deficient early education to his incarceration on North Carolina's death row, where he was given the opportunity to pursue higher education.

Lyle C. May is an Ohio University alum, member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society, incarcerated journalist, advocate for higher education, and activist. He recently published the book Witness: An Insider's Narrative of the Carceral State.

Amanda K. Cox is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ohio University and is an affiliate of the university's Center for Law, Justice, and Culture. She was a recipient of the Dr. Eric A. Wagner Endowed Professorship and Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Distinguished Mentor Award in 2022. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in sociology and criminology, taking a sociological approach to the study of criminological theory, the death penalty, ethics in law and justice, and crime and media. Dr. Cox's research interests include the death penalty, racial and socioeconomic inequality in punishment, ethics in law and justice, and criminological theory. Her research has been published in several academic journals.

Lisa M. Carter is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Florida Southern College. She also teaches courses for the Women and Gender Studies program. She earned her B.A in Sociology from the University of Kentucky, and her M.S. in Corrections and Juvenile Justice Studies from Eastern Kentucky University. She completed her Ph.D. in Criminology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include female criminality, corrections and rehabilitation, reintegration, and death penalty issues. She is the co-editor of the books, Female Offenders and Reentry: Pathways and Barriers to Returning to Society and Punishing Gender Past and Present: Examining the Criminal Justice System across Gendered Experiences. Dr. Carter co-authored the second edition of The Decision-Making Network. Additionally, she has published in Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research, Violence and Victims, and Journal of Homosexuality. She holds professional memberships with the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, American Society of Criminology, and Southwestern Social Sciences Association. She is a supporter of the Pennsylvania Prison Society and Pace Center for Girls.

The Transformative

Acknowledgments

Foreword

PART 1: The School-to-Prison Pipeline

1 Dysfunctional Learning

2 Institutional Learning

3 Class Dismissed

PART 2: Moral Panic: Abandoning the Rehabilitative Ideal

4 Uneducated

5 The Opportunity

6 Returning to the Classroom

PART 3: The Intrinsic Value of Higher Education: Resilience and Resistance

7 Choosing Higher Education

8 Class of One

9 Associate Degree

PART 4: Convict Criminology, Penal Populism, and Why Restoring the Rehabilitative Ideal In Prison Is Not As Simple As the Return of Pell Grant Access

10 Programs

11 Cultural Shift

12 Learning Environment

13 Challenging the Narrative

14 Networking

Epilogue

Afterword

Index