Armando Lizarraga
For Armando Lizarraga growing up, family trips involved going to visit his father in prison.
“When my dad was incarcerated, we never talked about it,” Lizarraga recalls of how his family dealt with his father’s status as an inmate of the California correctional system. “It was something that kind of happened.”
It wasn’t until Lizarraga got to college that he began to fully understand the profound impact that his father’s incarceration had on his childhood and education. A pivotal moment came in 2016, when Lizarraga transferred from El Camino Community College to UCLA. There, he discovered an organization called Underground Scholars, which provides support to students who are formerly incarcerated or who — like Lizarraga — have somehow been impacted by America’s criminal justice system.
Lizarraga’s involvement in the group ultimately led him to embark on his current research project as a doctoral candidate in educational leadership and policy at The University of Texas at Austin. There, Lizarraga is examining a program that requires women parolees in Texas to pay back special student loans for incarcerated people as a condition of their parole. If they fail to do so, they could be reincarcerated.
Lizarraga’s supporters say his research offers valuable insights into the intersection of incarceration, gender, and student debt.
“His research reveals the injustices embedded within current financing systems and highlights how policies intended to increase access can instead further marginalize and oppress those they aim to help,” says Dr. Denisa Gándara, associate professor of educational leadership and policy and Lizarraga’s advisor and committee chair at The University of Texas at Austin. “His work has the potential to inform future policy design at both state and federal levels.”
