Your identities can be an important part of your career, and may influence how you explore your options, prepare your story, decide on opportunities, or approach your career goals. This community is dedicated to information and resources that can help you reflect on your identity as a justice-impacted student, or learn more about this identity.
Students who are justice-impacted may identify themselves using a variety of terms. Language is ever-changing, and we have selected justice-impacted for this community page as the one we feel best reflects this community at this time. Here is some information on the different terms people may use:
Returning citizens – a technical term, meant to replace the stigmatized words “ex-con,” “ex-felon,” etc., is an individual who is returning home after being in prison.
Justice-impacted people / Justice-involved – SOOP (The State Opioid Oversight Project) defines justice-involved populations as individuals who have contact or interaction with courts, jails, or prisons including drug-courts, child protection cases, probation, jail, prison, and workhouse.
System-impacted people – a person who is legally, economically, or familially affected in a negative way by the incarceration of a close relative. System-impacted also includes people who have been arrested and/or convicted without incarceration.
