Navigating Higher Ed with a Criminal Record

The Presley Center of Crime & Justice Studies is an independent research center established by the California State Legislature (Penal Code §5085-5088), sited at the University of California’s Riverside campus, and housed within the School of Public Policy. The Center operates under the authority of the UC system and is vested with broad discretion to conduct self-directed research on issues related to criminal justice that can help inform evidence-based practice and policy. Currently, this includes empirical study of issues related to re-entry, rehabilitation, and improving the opportunities available to justice-involved individuals during reintegration into their community. Our research is supported by extramural funding through contract-based work, private foundations, and government grants, including the California Workforce Development Board, John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, American Sociological Association and the National Science Foundation, and the Riverside County Probation Department, among other organizations.

The Presley Center also supports UCR students’ academic and professional development through scholarships for justice-involved students, an internal internship program for undergraduate students interested in evidence-based practice and policy, an external internship program that pairs UCR students with regional criminal justice agencies and community-based organizations that serve justice-impacted populations, and other ad hoc professionalization and networking opportunities. These programs are offered alongside the Center’s longstanding Graduate Student Research Fellowship, which subsidizes UCR doctoral students’ research on issues related to crime and/or criminal justice.

To learn more about the Presley Center, please visit presleycenter.ucr.edu.