Halie Higley (Criminal Justice and Sociology double major ‘25) explored the obstacles Roanoke County Jail inmates face before release with supervisor, Dr. Kristin Richardson, Sociology and Public Health professor. During her time, Halie met with many of these residents, allowing her to better understand their perspectives and needs as both individuals and a general population. With these findings, she will offer a formal proposal that includes suggestions for changes, improvements, and new program ideas that can be implemented in the facility to best suit the population, staff size, and budget of the jail. As a long-term goal, Halie hopes to succeed in enacting these changes in the facility, which would allow the jail to have a more individualized focus for rehabilitation and reentry. Halie applied to the Summer Scholars program to expand her knowledge and research opportunities and this was the perfect program for her research, as it allowed her to remain on campus while completing the data collection for the project in the Roanoke County Jail, which is just a short walk away from campus. The academic opportunity and ease of access to the research site were the final pushes to encourage her to apply for the program. Summer Scholars also helped Halie improve her skills through the informative workshops held weekly. She learned how to more effectively communicate her research goals and progress with others outside of her field of study. From conducting her research, she learned more about the operations of the correctional facility as a whole, as well as how important different perspectives can be when studying rehabilitation and reentry. Furthermore, Halie learned more about the process of conducting research, as there are so many factors that contribute to having a successful experience. While the approval process for human subject research in a vulnerable population is very tedious, it allowed her to critically think about every aspect of the study in a different way. As she nears the completion of her project, Halie would like to thank her project supervisor, Dr. Kristin Richardson of the Sociology and Public Health Department for her endless encouragement and confidence in her abilities as a researcher. She would also like to express her gratitude to Sergeant Brian Flannagan, the Rehabilitation Sergeant in the Roanoke County Jail, as this project would not have been possible without his support. Finally, she would like to thank Dr. Kristi Hoffman and Chief Joseph Mills for being outstanding committee members during each stage of the research.
Congratulations on all your hard work!
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