They Still Dream of College. Where's the Infrastructure?

"Justice-involved youth still want college. The question isn't whether they have dreams, it's whether anyone is building real pathways for them."

They Haven't Given Up on Education

Research on incarcerated youth shows something people on the outside often miss: a large share of young people in custody say they still aspire to college or further education. Even after arrests, court dates, and detention, many hold on to the idea that school could be their way out, if they can ever get back on track.[1][2]

But those aspirations don't live in a vacuum. Studies link college goals to things like prior school engagement, family expectations, and whether youth have adults who talk to them about higher education in concrete, believable ways. When those supports are missing, or when school has mostly been a place of suspension, embarrassment, or low expectations, "I want to go to college" starts to feel like a script they're supposed to say, not a future they can actually reach.[2][3]

The dream is there. The infrastructure isn't.

Aspirations Without Pathways Is Another Kind of Lie

Youth in the system hear a lot of mixed messages:

"Stay in school."
"Think about college."
"You can be anything you want."

At the same time, they're in classrooms that don't transfer credits cleanly, facilities with shaky internet access, and programs that end the day they walk out the door. Nobody is helping them build the transcripts, writing skills, or self-advocacy they need to actually enroll and stay.[3][2]

That's not inspiration, that's false advertising.

A real pathway to college or training should:

• Help a young person understand their story, not just their charges.

• Build concrete skills, reading, writing, critical thinking, that show up on paper.

• Follow them from facility to community, instead of forcing them to start over at zero.

That gap between "we believe in you" and "here's the actual structure" is where CTG Digital lives.

Why Story Is the Missing Prerequisite

Traditional education treats writing as an academic exercise, essays, book reports, formulas. But justice-involved youth don't just need to pass English; they need to make sense of a life that has already gone off script.

The research on protective factors for justice‑involved youth points again and again to things like identity, relationships, and the ability to reframe their experiences. Those are narrative skills as much as they are psychological skills.[2][3]

CTG starts there:

Identity: Who am I, really, underneath what the system says I am?

Pattern recognition: How did I get here, and what patterns do I keep repeating?

Ownership: What can I control, starting now?

Future narrative: Who do I want to become, and what story am I willing to live to get there?

When a young person can answer those questions on the page, they're not just "doing a program." They're building the foundation for personal statements, scholarship essays, and interviews where they don't have to hide their past to talk about their future.

How CTG Digital Becomes a Bridge to College

CTG Digital turns that story work into a structured, trackable experience that systems can actually plug into.

Twelve-week curriculum that moves from identity and mindset to strategy and legacy, with weekly writing prompts that generate real, heartfelt work, not generic essays.

Digital journaling and progress tracking that show participation, completion, and growth over time, exactly the kind of documentation programs and funders say they want for education and reentry.[4][5]

Writing Mastery path that teaches story craft, revision, and basic publishing skills, giving youth concrete writing samples and a sense of themselves as authors, not just "former offenders."

For a youth in custody, CTG might start as a weekly group in a classroom that doesn't look like much. For that same youth on the outside, CTG Digital means they can log back in from a community program, a college computer lab, or their own phone and keep going, same lessons, same story, same growth record.

That continuity is exactly what juvenile justice researchers say is missing when they talk about disengagement, credit loss, and broken educational trajectories.[6][2]

How Systems Can Use CTG to Make "College Talk" Real

If agencies and schools want to stop selling dreams they can't back up, they need programs that connect aspiration to action. CTG Digital offers a few concrete ways to do that:

As a For-Credit Elective in Facility Schools

A "Writing, Leadership, and Life Strategy" course that runs for 12 weeks, produces a portfolio of reflective and narrative writing, and can be listed on a transcript as English or elective credit.

As a Core Component of Youth Reentry Cohorts

Youth complete CTG modules between meetings and bring their writing into circles where mentors and staff connect it to concrete next steps, GED, community college, training programs.

As a Pre-College Bridge

Community colleges and nonprofits can use CTG with justice‑impacted youth who are nervous about stepping into academic spaces, helping them claim their story and practice the kind of writing college will demand.

Now when a youth says "I want to go to college," adults can respond with: "Let's finish CTG together, build your story portfolio, and use that to open doors."

Why This Matters for Justice-Involved Black Youth

The research is clear that youth of color, especially Black youth, bear the brunt of both incarceration and educational exclusion. They are more likely to attend under-resourced schools, more likely to be suspended, and more likely to be pushed into the justice system for behavior that might be handled differently elsewhere.[3][6]

For them, college aspiration isn't just about a better job; it's about breaking an intergenerational pattern.

CTG doesn't pretend race or system bias don't exist. It names them. It gives Black youth a place to write through what they've seen, what they've survived, and what they refuse to pass on. And it insists that their narrative, not the state's file, is the one that should guide what comes next.

When those youth step into a college advising office or financial aid workshop, it makes a difference if they've already spent weeks articulating who they are, what they've overcome, and what they're aiming at. It makes a difference if they can hand someone a personal statement that sounds like a human being, not a template.

From Aspiration to Evidence

The research shows that incarcerated youth still dream about higher education, and that those dreams are shaped by the support, information, and expectations around them. The system's job is not to "motivate" them harder; it's to provide proof that a different future is actually possible.[1]

CTG Digital is one piece of that proof:

• A documented journey of self-reflection and growth

• Real writing skills that show up on paper and on screen

• A portable platform that doesn't disappear when a case closes

Degrees and credentials still matter. But without self-knowledge, critical thinking, and narrative power, they're fragile.

CTG doesn't replace school, it makes school and college more usable, more survivable, and more honest for the youth who have every reason to doubt they belong there.

The research says they haven't stopped dreaming. The question is whether we're willing to meet them with more than talk.

T.M. Jefferson
Founder, Change The Game Educational Program
www.ctgpro.org

Sources

[1] College Aspirations Among Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders - OUCI https://ouci.dntb.gov.ua/en/works/4NLDB6K9/
[2] Incarcerated Youths' Perspectives on Protective Factors and Risk ... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4463382/
[3] Families and the Juvenile Justice System - PubMed Central https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5726419/
[4] Supporting Youth Returning from Justice Involvement – TYAN https://tyan.tamu.edu/jun2025returningyouth/
[5] Increase access to education for people in the juvenile and criminal ... https://csgjusticecenter.org/publications/american-rescue-plan/explore-funding-opportunities/increase-access-to-education-and-training-to-support-economic-mobility/
[6] School-based outcomes among youth with incarcerated parents - NIH https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5657233/