Irene Sotelo sat at a long conference table during the fall of 2019, delegating over a Cal State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Rising Scholars meeting. Over a decade prior, however, she wasn’t delegating anything. After a complex series of events, she was arrested in Long Beach and incarcerated for 18 months. She never thought she’d be in this position.
See related: Rising Scholars and Project Rebound provide resources for formerly incarcerated students
Before then-graduate student, Sotelo stood a future that was much different from the reality she faced a decade prior upon her incarceration.
Fast forward to present time, graduating with her master’s in social work during a global pandemic and becoming the program coordinator of an organization she helped lay the groundwork for at CSULB, Sotelo had a journey she wanted to share.
On Thursday, April 8, she along with three other women leaders from LA County Project Rebound chapters recounted their experiences from incarceration to higher education in a panel hosted via Zoom.
Project Rebound is a statewide program that helps formerly incarcerated persons who enroll in the CSU system with their higher education journey and reintegration. CSULB’s chapter of the program debuted in 2020.
Joining Sotelo was Summer Brantner from Cal State University, Los Angeles, Priscilla Terriquez from Cal Poly Pomona and Lily Gonzalez from Cal State University, Northridge.
Moderated by Sara Rodriguez, chief of staff at Cal Poly Pomona’s Project Rebound, the panel had a familial air, as other colleagues and the general public tuned in.
Reflecting on her own academic journey, Sotelo described how she dropped out of school during seventh grade after her mother died by suicide.
“Once I lost her there was no interest in school anymore,” she said. “No interest in doing anything in school. I tried to do a little bit of high school, I just went and just hung out because I started getting involved in gangs.”
Sotelo’s early academic career was put on the back burner until she was 18 when she moved to a different county and got her GED. School, however, still wasn’t of much interest for Sotelo, who at this point had met her husband.
It wasn’t until Sotelo was on the eve of her 50s—and after her incarceration—that her academic journey took a turn.
“You have to figure out something because I’m in a program,” Sotelo said. “I am already almost 50 years old, I didn’t know what to do, what am I gonna do with myself because I was homeless and all that before that so I ended up enrolling in school.”
Upon entering community college, Sotelo started receiving A’s and her outlook changed.
“I started challenging myself to get those A’s,” she said. “Every time I got an A was a new challenge to see if I could do it, it started becoming a habit to where I started really enjoying college.”
Sotelo challenged herself into a bachelor’s in sociology and a minor in criminal justice from Cal State Long Beach. In May she will finish her master’s program.
All the women in the panel graduated with either a bachelor’s or master’s degree and are in leadership positions within their Project Rebound chapters. Each has been able to use their experience with incarceration as an opportunity to help others.
“I feel like I’m able to really leverage and harness my networks in order to be able to help folks […],like myself, and creating those pathways and also dismantling the systems,” Lily Gonzalez said of working in higher education.
“How we talk about these things, how we think about issues of incarceration, not just helping folks get to higher education but like what are you going to do with that degree afterwards?” she said. “How are we going to tear this down and build the communities that we deserve, that are centered on care?”
The women discussed some of the challenges they faced upon reentry. Finding a job after being incarcerated was one of them.
“My age was one of my biggest [challenges] because I went to prison so late in my life, like my middle 40s,” Sotelo said. “I was homeless, didn’t have experience with jobs [because] you know the life I lived was you know gangs and getting in trouble, I didn’t have an education. So I never really worked.”
Another of the challenges the women discussed was being mothers while incarcerated.
“My children were already adult children when I got out,” Sotelo shared. “When I left, the guilt that I felt when I came back out, of what I put my kids through, everything to build that relationship back up takes some time because they didn’t trust that mom was going to sober up.”
Terriquez on the other hand shared how her bond with her son was affected while she was incarcerated.
“I ended up having my son when I was incarcerated,” she said. “So I never got that bond that many moms have with their firstborn or any born.”
“What I went through a lot of women go through, especially if you’re serving time for an extended period of time,” Terriquez said, noting the love she has for her son.
According to an article from the American Journal of Public Health, from 2016 to 2017 overall 1,396 pregnant women were admitted to state prisons. The data was collected from 22 state prison systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The report also stated that two-thirds of incarcerated women are mothers and the primary caregivers to young children, and up to 84% have been pregnant in the past.
Black women are imprisoned at twice the rate of white women, the report states, noting the disparities in the US criminal legal system.
“The pre-incarceration lives of a significant proportion of women in prison are characterized by poverty, substance use disorders, histories of trauma and abuse, and limited access to health care,” the report noted.
Gonzalez noted this in her discussion on challenges women face upon reentry, highlighting the work of Million Dollar Hoods, a community driven research project that is compiling “the fiscal and human cost of mass incarceration in Los Angeles.”
According to a Million Dollar Hoods analysis of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department data from 2010 to 2016, the most common charges for women include possession of a controlled substance, driving on a suspended license, no insurance and theft, shoplifting and larceny.
“We know that it’s [..] what they call crimes of poverty,” Gonzalez said. “It’s mental health issues, it’s social issues, things that shouldn’t be criminalized.”
One of the common goals the women share is supporting others who are starting off their educational journey after incarceration.
“If there ever comes a moment where you’re just putting yourself down, just remember to reach out and look for us,” Terriquez said. “We’re here regardless, so just please don’t think you’re in this by yourself. We’re here 100% of the way with you.”
For more information on Project Rebound, visit their website here.
You can find information on CSULB’s chapter here, CSULA here, CSU Northridge here and Cal Poly Pomona here.
