Jamir Jumoke describes the first part of his life as a direct result of the school-to-prison pipeline. Growing up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, he struggled in school. Between a diagnosed but unaddressed learning disability and a culturally-unaware system that relegated him to unhelpful programs, repeatedly suspended him, and sent him to juvenile detention centers, unsurprisingly, he eventually found himself in prison.
Convicted of three felonies, Jamir Jumoke decided, while sitting on a cold steel bench in his cell, he would do whatever it took to learn, grow, and become the kind of man he wanted to be.
Since his decision to turn things around, he’s won a Dallas Herring achievement award from the North Carolina Community College System, earned his Bachelor’s degree in criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and now works in reentry and recovery work with the local nonprofit, Coastal Horizons.
He’s also working on his first book, Remain Resilient: 7 Steps for Surviving Recidivism.
