When I think about all the people who have helped Prison Professors expand, I’m especially grateful for those who strengthen the credibility of our programs. My friend Jay Jordan exemplifies that support—he introduced me to Dr. Stacy Calhoun, a social scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Stacy devotes her career to gathering and analyzing data that lead to evidence-based practices. By tapping into her expertise, we’re showing prison administrators and community stakeholders the enduring value of our work.
Dr. Calhoun serves as a social scientist and researcher at UCLA. Throughout her career, she has specialized in designing studies that focus on how we can leverage scientific data to reduce recidivism, improve community reintegration, and foster human development. Driven by her commitment to social justice, she aims to combine rigorous research methods with practical applications, ensuring that outcomes can be directly measured and replicated. By collaborating with organizations such as ours, Stacy provides independent validations that help to enhance program delivery in correctional environments. She uses her platform at UCLA not only to conduct meaningful studies but also to mentor emerging scholars who share her vision of evidence-based reform.
Our Collaboration with Dr. Calhoun
When Jay introduced me to Stacy, I immediately saw her alignment with our mission. I reached out, and we discussed our goal: We wanted to show how our programs build intrinsic motivation among justice-involved people, guiding them to emerge as law-abiding, contributing citizens. Stacy agreed to conduct an independent study of our program, Preparing for Success after Prison.
I’m thankful for Stacy’s collaboration in validating our work. We’re already seeing positive impacts, particularly in areas such as agency, hope, resilience, trust, wellbeing, emotional intelligence, empathy, and impulsivity among the people we serve. These encouraging results give me hope that together, we can reach more facilities and help more people prepare for success upon release.
As Stacy continues to advance her research, we’re looking forward to sharing peer-reviewed findings with correctional administrators, legislators, and stakeholders across the country. By emphasizing rigorous evaluations and publications, we believe we will inspire greater confidence in the efficacy of Prison Professors’ programming. In turn, we’ll be able to open even more doors for those seeking a pathway to personal growth and contribution.
A Message from Dr. Calhoun
“Prison Professors has established a partnership with Dr. Stacy Calhoun from the University of California, Los Angeles to build the evidence base for our programs delivered to individuals incarcerated in correctional facilities. Through this collaboration, we have implemented a continuous quality improvement process to evaluate and enhance our programs. Initial findings from this process show positive impacts among those who have completed the PSAP program in areas of agency, hope, resilience, trust, wellbeing, emotional intelligence, empathy, and impulsivity. Building on these encouraging results, our partnership is now focused on further refinement of processes as we prepare to conduct a more rigorous evaluation of the PSAP program using a randomized design.”
Through Stacy’s commitment to research, we plan to collect and analyze the data that will guide Prison Professors in making an even greater impact. Whether working directly with people inside jails and prisons or partnering with administrators, her scientific rigor shows a pathway forward, proving that an investment in evidence-based practices can yield life-changing opportunities.
Self-Directed Learning Question:
- How can you leverage credible, evidence-based research to strengthen your own efforts at personal development, and what relationships can you build today to help you validate and refine your progress over time?
