Newsroom > PRI’s Bianca Van Heydoorn Quoted in Vice.com on Colleges Asking Prospective Students About Criminal Histories

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PRI’s Bianca Van Heydoorn Quoted in Vice.com on Colleges Asking Prospective Students About Criminal Histories

Bianca Van Heydoorn, director of educational initiatives for John Jay’s Prisoner Reentry Institute, is among the experts quoted in a recent commentary on Vice.com – a news web site – that examines the practice by some colleges and universities of asking would-be students about criminal records they might have.

A 2010 survey by the Center for Community Alternatives found that two-thirds of U.S. colleges and universities collect criminal justice information from applicants – a practice that Van Heydoorn sees as not only potentially discriminatory but also counterproductive when it comes to reducing recidivism, by denying former prisoners an important avenue for reentering society.

Click here to read the article “Colleges Should Stop Asking Prospective Students About Their Criminal Records.”