Criminal and Justice Studies Instructor Stacie Haen-Darden, Ph.D., has more than 20 years of experience establishing educational opportunities for at-risk and troubled youth. During her tenure at COD, she spearheaded a college credit program in partnership with the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. Through the partnership, in 2019, six youth in secured care at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville enrolled in courses at COD, enabling them to earn college credit. While COVID-19 has put a pause on the partnership, Haen-Darden is eager to shift gears and help other vulnerable populations access education.
Haen-Darden’s passion for these educational initiative stems from her belief that many kids who commit crimes come from broken backgrounds, but they can have a promising future if offered the right support.
“Many times, kids commit crimes because of physical, sexual or emotional abuse they have encountered in their lives,” she said. “They haven’t come from a background rich with opportunities or resources to succeed. When incarcerated, they often don’t have the same access as everyone else to education—and the sad part is, many of them never did. When we look at rehabilitation, you can’t question that the more education you have, be it youth or adults, the less likely you are to re-offend.”
Recently, Haen-Darden received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to teach juvenile justice rehabilitation, criminology and educational practices in Turkey during the fall semester of the 2022-23 academic year. She hopes her Fulbright develops into a long-term partnership between COD and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.
“When you build these kinds of collaborative partnerships, you look at things differently than if you were just looking at it through an American vacuum," she said. "This experience is going to open up my mind and make me a richer educator.”
Contact Haen-Darden at haen-dardens@cod.edu.
You can’t question that the more education you have, be it youth or adults, the less likely you are to re-offend.
- Stacie Haen-Darden, Criminal and Justice Studies Instructor
Areas of Expertise
- Juvenile Justice Systems and Theories
- Educational opportunities in Juvenile Centers
- Criminology
- Rehabilitative Practices