24 years ago, Aaron Kinzel awoke in a six by eight foot cell only to stare at gray cylinder block walls gawking back at him and prison bars mocking him.

The smell of sweat and grime from himself and other prison mates trying to be hidden with cleaner penetrated his nose.

Voices and racket coming from the cells around him filled his ears.

Kinzel lived this life for 10 years.

Following the path most traveled

In 1997 when Kinzel was 18 years old, he made a choice that would change the trajectory of his life for many years to come. He was arrested for a violent confrontation with law enforcement that could have ended with Kinzel taking a life or his life being taken away from him.

This was not Kinzel’s first run in with the system as his upbringing was filled with violence, poverty and neglect.

“I grew up in the streets and my family members were heavily involved in crime and drug dealing and I was a part of a really dark world,” he said. “Where I came from prepared me for prison in a weird way.”

Kinzel’s family tree is filled with criminal history and has cycles of incarceration of relatives dating back to a century ago.

He grew up in the projects not knowing his father and his relationship with his mother did not come from a place of love and care.

“I wanted to be around my mama so much as a young teenager that I would actually do violent and criminal things just to be around her because that was the climate and area she was around, ” he said.

When Kinzel finally landed himself in prison with a 19 year sentence, he was ready to call Maine State Prison home for the rest of his adolescence and spend his first adult years doing time for his committed crime.

A metamorphic change

A few years into serving, Kinzel realized he did not have to chase down the pathway his ancestors did for many decades. Incrementally he was ready to start the change to better himself and his future.
“They say that the peak years of criminality are between the ages of 16 and 26. 26 is when the brain is fully cognitively developed,” he said. “By my mid 20’s I started thinking differently but also I had some really good mentors while in prison, like men who like myself committed some very serious acts and doing life without parole would often challenge me to be more civically engaged. They were really smart people that had changed who they were.”

While in the prison system, Kinzel made the decision to take a college course through state funding to get a head start on the years to come when he was released. He took a psychology course that earned him three credits while imprisoned. He believes just that one access to education changed his life forever.

Kinzel’s one and only education experience while incarcerated opened many doors for him, including his current position as Director of Transition and Alumni Services at Ashland University’s prison program.

At 28 years old after spending 10 years behind bars, Kinzel reentered the world in 2007 with a fresh outlook on the world and determined to create a life for himself that was impossible to fathom when he was 18.

Finding a new direction

Kinzel received his bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies from Siena Heights University, went on to get his master’s degree in public administration and is currently working on his doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in education.

It was during his time in school he learned that sharing his story could educate others and help them with their studies. He was soon brought on as a faculty member at the University of Michigan to teach in the criminology department.

Kinzel’s teaching position allows him to show his students different vantage points of the justice system. One of his favorite ways to do this is by taking them to the Ohio State Reformatory to learn its history.

“I often bring people that were justice impacted like myself or correctional officers to give them a different perspective of what it’s like in prison,” he said. “Having been locked up for a long time as a young man, this is kind of a fetish for me to do. I visit a lot of prisons across the United States and Europe and tour a lot of them. It is very fascinating, the architecture, the history and how people were treated and how the [prison system] has changed.”

Although he enjoyed his purpose as a professor at the University of Michigan, Kinzel was ready for a change.

He had his first interaction with Ashland University when one of his graduate students wanted to interview faculty members a part of the prison program. He believed in the work the program was fulfilling and when a job position opened, Kinzel applied.

Since the beginning of 2022, Aaron Kinzel has served as Director of Transition and Alumni Services for AU’s prison program, creating awareness among AU faculty and staff about the challenges students face while incarcerated and after release, communicating with formerly incarcerated AU students about the campus, alumni services and related information, identifying potential grant opportunities for post incarceration transition programs and service and more, according to Business Manager of Correctional Education at Ashland University, James Cox. He also still teaches his students part time at the University of Michigan.

“Aaron was chosen [for this position] based on his leadership in post-incarceration service organizations in Michigan, his research background through the University of Michigan, and vision for the TAS program. That he has a carceral background provides additional perspective to his professional capabilities and background,” Business Manager of Correctional Education at Ashland University, Cox said.

Helping others find purpose

Kinzel is a strong advocate for helping those who have gone to prison and will one day reenter society. From personal experience, he knows this transition can be difficult and wants to find a better solution than just throwing people back into the world once their sentence has been served.

“At least 95% of these people are coming home at some point so the question becomes do we invest in people and try to give them the tools so they can better themselves, their family and community or do we continue to treat them like lepers and disconnect them from society and wonder why is it that they get involved in criminality again? “It’s not about giving handouts, it’s about giving equal opportunities,” he said.

The prison program at Ashland University allows inmates to create a promising pathway for themselves while serving time. Although he was able to take one class in prison, Kinzel was not able to fully enroll in the program while he was incarcerated due to the pell grant ban for prison classes. Now, he encourages all inmates to take advantage of the chance for success.

“It’s a powerful opportunity, you have all the cards being handed to you,” Kinzel said. “You have this opportunity with a stacked deck, why not take it?”

Kinzel now has a family of his own and is living life not forgetting his mistakes as a young man, but embracing and learning from them.

“26 years later, from when I made that terrible mistake as a kid, I’m still growing and evolving,” he said. “I had some of the worst experiences as a child and I got through this by being determined and stubborn. You have to find ways to take yourself out of that and push forward. “The cycle of incarceration can end.”