Expertise:
Prison Education, Politics of Crime, Prison Reform, NGOs, Public Policy Development, Juvenile Justice and Restorative Justice, Race and Ethnic Politics, Race and EthnicityRenford Reese has two decades of experience creating and managing academic programs for people in prison and the formerly incarcerated. He is the director/founder of the Prison Education Project, which has expanded educational opportunities for the in-custody population in 45 California correctional facilities and three international correctional facilities. He is the director/founder of the Reintegration Academy, which provides life skills, career development and vocational education modules for people recently released from prison. He is also one of the co-founding executive directors of the California State University Project Rebound Consortium. Reese is the author of 11 books and the producer of 8 documentaries that examine race and the U.S. criminal justice system with a focus on African American men. He has also written about professional sports and Black student-athletes in a variety of publications.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- Haynes Foundation Faculty Fellow, Pitzer College, 2014
- Fulbright Scholar, University of Hong Kong, 2009
Selected Publications:
- “Violence in America: From a ‘Criminal’s’ Perspective,” R-Cubed Publishing, 2024
- “Norman Lear should be remembered as an American entertainment and justice icon,” Los Angeles Daily News, Dec. 6, 2023
- “The Failed Experiment,” R-Cubed Publishing, 2017
- “Trumps Ignites Consciousness of Black Pro Athletes,” Los Angeles Daily News, September 26, 2017
- “Trump’s Failure of Moral Leadership is Consequential,” Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, August 17, 2017
- “The Prison Education Project,” International Review of Education, pp.1-23, Fall 2017. Abstract
- “The Lack of Political Activism Among Today’s Black Athletes,” Journal of Higher Education, Athletics, and Innovation, Volume, Issue 2, Summer 2017. Abstract
- “The Lessons Learned from Implementing the Prison Education Project,” Spectrum, Vol. 5, No. 2, Spring 2017
- The Prison to School Pipeline, R-Cubed Publishing, 2016
- “Rwanda’s Paul Kagame as Machiavelli’s Prince,” Journal of Diplomacy and International Affairs, (107) Spring 2014 Abstract, Article
- “The Summer Youth Reintegration Academy,” Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men,” Volume 2, Issue 2, Summer 2014, Introduction
Interviews:
- “Incarcerated women in Missouri get chance at college degree: ‘It’s life-changing,” Yahoo! News, April 21, 2023
- “Revolutionary housing: how colleges aim to support formerly incarcerated students,” Hechinger Report, Feb. 6, 2023
- “Write A Different End: How Building Community Can Take Students From Prison to College Degree,” LAist, May 19, 2022
- “DJJ high school graduations: Time for reflection, accomplishments and hope,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, July 13, 2021
- “Political Science Professor’s Doc Examines American Myth in Wake of George Floyd,” PolyCentric, June 11, 2020
- “Professor Cultivates College Potential in Prison Parolees,” KNBC-4 Los Angeles, June 6, 2017
- “Republicans created Donald Trump, their albatross: Renford Reese,” Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Oct. 14, 2016
- “Montclair students learn about becoming global citizens,” Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Feb. 2, 2016
- “Donald Sterling incident — racism and elitism: Renford Reese,” Los Angeles Daily News, April 28, 2014
- Featured on ESPN’s “Realizing the Dream” series in 2010 and appears as a commentator on the Biography Channel’s mini-bios on Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson.
Videos:
- Is America a Myth, interviews with six formerly incarcerated men about whether the American Dream includes people of color, June 2020
- TEDxTalk, “Education and Re-Integration,” June 26, 2014
- Cal Poly Pomona Prison Race series, Renford Reese interviews gang member Will Fields, July 13, 2011
Education:
Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1996
M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1990
B.A., Vanderbilt University, 1989
Languages:
English