Kesha Westbrooks is a Navy veteran, a mom, and a UNLV junior. She’s also among an estimated 70 million Americans haunted by a criminal record.

“You don’t know who’s going to judge you based off that one action that you took,” said Westbrooks, who was convicted and sentenced to prison for a financial crime. “I shouldn’t have to be stigmatized for the rest of my life because of something that I did and paid for — highly paid for.”

Rebel Rebound, a UNLV program that launched in January, aims to boost enrollment and graduation for so-called “justice-impacted” students.

The program provides academic resources and mentorship for any student facing societal barriers as a result of their interaction with the criminal justice system. That can include individuals with arrest records or convictions, as well as their family members. Up to an estimated 10 percent of UNLV students may be justice-impacted.

Programs like Rebel Rebound have been around for more than 60 years. Data shows such support programs can boost graduation rates and significantly lower recidivism.

“With mass incarceration, education is the best form of rehabilitation,” said Jason Scott, Rebel Rebound program coordinator. 

Something personal

For Scott, being coordinator is personal. Though his criminal record was sealed in 2014 after an earlier cannabis offense, it continued to show up on some background checks.

“You can’t outrun a digital record, and that’s the reality that a lot of people face,” Scott said.

Now, though, that criminal record allows him to relate to justice-impacted students and the struggles they may face.

For Westbrooks, it means opening up and sharing both struggles and successes.

“Mentorship is an important part of the growth process. Just knowing that there are other people who have similar backgrounds to me and are trying to do something different with their life is helpful,” she said. “I don’t feel so alone.”

Westbrooks is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in social work. She has her sights set on a master’s degree with an ultimate goal of helping both justice-impacted people and veterans.

Scott, a doctoral candidate at UNLV, followed a similar path. In 2021 at UNLV, he began an outreach effort that led to the creation of the Justice-Impacted Summer Institute.

That institute and Scott’s advocacy prompted UNLV to establish the Rebel Rebound program.

Sunny Gittens, executive director of student engagement and chair of the Justice Impacted Task Force, said, “The personal stories students share related to the very real cultural and structural barriers they face have spurred my passion for ensuring students have a place on campus to connect and ready access to programs and services.”