"Degrees of Freedom" finds that California has not been adequately providing effective college opportunities for criminal justice-involved students, despite the fact that such access will help California build safer and more economically viable communities. This report is part of a larger initiative--Renewing Communities--to expand college opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated students in California. The study discussed in this report is a joint project of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center at Stanford Law School and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. This report targets policymakers, potential students, and college administrators in California. It also provides a valuable blueprint for other states seeking to build effective college pathways that will help these underserved students become college graduates. Based on over 175 interviews, academic research and historical investigation, the report profiles existing programs and identifies recommendations for critical growth and sustainability. It highlights challenges and successful strategies, and sets out a series of concrete recommendations to ensure that future programs are sustainable, scalable, and high-quality. It demonstrates how the state's existing structures can bring education and criminal justice together to achieve mutual goals, including increasing college graduation rates, preparing students to meet the demands of the labor market, and increasing the chances of reentry success. The following are appended: (1) List of Contacts; (2) Reference Programs; (3) College Admissions and Financial Aid Overview for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Students; (4) County-Level Data on 1170(h) Population; (5) Overview of Public Safety Realignment; (6) Labor Market Considerations; and (7) Sample MOU. Contains a glossary, notes, and a bibliography. [This report was written with the assistance of Nicole Lindahl. For the Executive Summary, see ED574136.]