The Journey So Far and the Road Ahead

Today I want to talk about where I am at in my McNair journey. I want to start by discussing my mentor selection process and will then move on to my present dilemma: which topic I want to commit to researching.

Now then, let’s talk about what a mentor does and what I was looking for in a mentor. A mentor is a guiding hand as you move through the process of conducting professional research. They offer advice, and help develop and refine your research topic and act as a template from which you can use as a basis for the type researcher and scholar you gradually develop into.

When I was looking for a mentor, I wanted to find someone who had a wealth of knowledge in the field of criminal justice, and felt comfortable teaching someone like myself who has little prior research experience. Although I may be close to my peers' equal in academic performance, I still had a late start to college as well as the McNair program. Therefore, I feel I do not possess the same comfort level or requisite knowledge of the inner workings of research that they have. More than a faculty members’ comfortability level though, I wanted a mentor who would, after giving me a good “push” to start, also know when to “take the training wheels off”.

When I was initially talking to professors about research, I immediately honed in on three potential candidates, each more than qualified and all experts in the field. Two professors I had last semester in Police in Society and Crime Prevention, while I met the other professor this semester in my Criminology Theory and Youth Crime and Juvenile Delinquency courses. As one of the few students to regularly attend in-person class, I was able to build a modest rapport with him quickly. As I continued to discuss the program and research with each professor, there was one who stood out the most and who I felt most comfortable with. More importantly though, this professor presented the most independence in regards to choosing my research topic. I felt he met my criteria and he just so happened to be my faculty advisor.

Out of the gate, I knew I wanted to research corrections, specifically, recidivism rates of formerly incarcerated individuals. From there, I narrowed it down to two general topics:

1. If California’s incarcerated firefighters are willing to risk their lives to volunteer for the conservation camp program to fight fires, what future might they have outside of prison, and might their participation in this program exhibit a higher proclivity to successful reintegration?

I was surprised to learn that up until September of 2020 after completing their terms of incarceration, these individuals could not become firefighters. This to me seemed counterintuitive as California had been increasingly relying on this volunteer force of incarcerated firefighters. And so I thought, given proper research, my mentor and I might have the potential to affect real change, if not only to spur on the individuals who might actually have that power to enact similar legislation in other states.

2. Does participation in correctional industries work programs lead to lower recidivism rates and higher employment rates post incarceration?

The general guiding principle of my curiosity is, “How can I make my small corner of the world better than it was when I found it?” The answer to that question always seems to lead to this conclusion: “Make a difference, be it in one life or many.” When trying to decide which topic I should research I am uncertain which topic has the greater potential to make a positive difference.