Overcoming Criminal Legal Stigma, One Story at a Time

Researchers hope digital storytelling will help formerly incarcerated people navigate stigma, racial oppression

Though they have “served their time,” formerly incarcerated people can find it difficult to make a new start, and take steps toward employment and other important pursuits in their lives. Disparities in the legal system can make return to society even more difficult for people of color, including disproportionately harsher sentences, and stronger social stigma toward those who have been incarcerated.

Assistant Professor Terrill O. Taylor of the Department of Psychology and Associate Professor Royel M. Johnson of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education are conducting research seeking to help formerly incarcerated people of color overcome these obstacles. The tool they believe will help people navigate life after incarceration, and challenge social stigma surrounding formerly incarcerated people, is storytelling.

Taylor and Johnson are conducting a pilot study to develop and test JusticeReFramed, a digital storytelling intervention that they are designing to instill narrative-driven empathy into society, and that will challenge harmful stereotypes among employers. The research is funded by a nearly $200,000 grant from the Russell Sage Foundation; the foundation, alongside The Policy Academies, has supported Taylor’s work on justice-involved populations in the past.

In this study, Taylor and Johnson will bring groups of formerly incarcerated Black individuals into Taylor’s Restoring H.O.P.E. Research lab. A randomized group of participants will engage in a three-day workshop where discussions and exercises will focus on topics related to navigating the criminal legal system, navigating reentry, and strategies to help deal with different racialized stressors.

“We’ll also be looking at the job search process, discussing what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, and how the job search has an impact on participants’ identity, their self-esteem, and their views about themselves,” Taylor said.

Participants will also engage in digital storytelling. The researchers will record their stories, and some messages are designed to speak to a potential employer about participants’ history and experiences. This process, the researchers hope, will help the participants learn to talk about their incarceration experience as a chapter in their lives, but not the full story.

Taylor and Johnson will evaluate whether this intervention leads to reductions in internalized stigma, how the participants view themselves, and how they might be experiencing feelings of empowerment, self-esteem, and other mental health-related outcomes.

Taylor and Johnson will show some of the digital stories to human resources professionals across different employment sectors. The researchers hope to find out whether viewing the storytelling intervention makes it more likely for an HR professional to hire someone who has previously been incarcerated, or bring them in for a second interview. 

Ultimately, the researchers hope to help formerly incarcerated people reframe their own stories, and to think about the fact that their experiences matter, but incarceration does not have to define their lives.

“My work has consistently shown that people’s opportunities are shaped not only by their talents and aspirations, but also by the stories institutions and society tell about them. For people who have experienced incarceration, those stories are often reduced to a single narrative,” Johnson said. “We’re interested in understanding whether we can change that narrative and create pathways to greater opportunity, dignity, and belonging.”

This new project is especially meaningful to Taylor because he was incarcerated for a time during his undergraduate days. When he returned to his life after incarceration, Taylor felt a mix of emotions. Continuing his studies in psychology helped him to not only gain confidence and a sense of belonging for himself, but gave him insight into what might help others on a similar path.

“By working with mentors and engaging in the work it takes to become a psychologist, I found that I felt greater acceptance by leaning into my story, as opposed to shying away from or backing out of talking about it. Some of that process was learning about narrative and cognitive behavioral therapies,” Taylor said. “Ultimately, I started to think, ‘How could these tools have been helpful at earlier stages of the process for me?’ And that's been informing why I wanted to develop this intervention.”

Taylor and Johnson have teamed up on similar research before, which was also supported by the Russell Sage Foundation. On that project and in many other ways, Taylor considers Johnson to be a valued mentor.

In the previous project titled, “Black Men’s Vocational Journeys: Overcoming Racism and Justice Involvement” Taylor explored how Black men who have been involved with the criminal justice system make sense of their experiences, and how these experiences affect their educational and career aspirations.

Taylor and Johnson’s partnership has also yielded additional work, including a recent book chapter published in the Handbook of Student Engagement in Higher Education, titled “Engaging Students with Criminal Legal Records.”

“One of the things that makes this project so meaningful is the opportunity to work with Dr. Taylor,” Johnson said. “His scholarship and lived experience have shaped an important research agenda focused on possibility, healing, and human potential. I’m excited to see what we learn from the stories people choose to tell and the ways those stories might reshape how others listen.” 
 

Published on Thu, Jun 25, 2026 - 9:45AM