Did You Know Most Prisoners Are Barred from Higher Education? Here’s Why That’s a Problem.

Education unleashes our innate capacity to grow to our full potential—something our justice system used to recognize by making Pell Grants available to prisoners. There was a time when America generally accepted that granting prisoners access to higher education allowed men and women to develop into productive citizens so they could change the culture inside and outside of prisons, resulting in stronger families and safer communities.

But today, all but a few incarcerated people are barred from accessing Pell Grants—a key source of financing for those who can't afford college.

PELL GRANTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The Pell Grants established with the Higher Education Act of 1965 provided support for low-income students, including incarcerated ones, in need of financial help to attend a college or university. As a result, higher education programs expanded throughout the prison system, and by 1990, there were college programs in more than 1,000 correctional facilities.

But in 1994, prisoners' Pell Grant eligibility was taken away. Today, through the limited Second Chance Pell Pilot program, there are only 64 in-prison higher education programs. These exist because the Obama and Trump administrations used their executive power, respectively, to establish and continue them. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has opened up applications for more Second Chance Pell sites. Such sites typically last three to five years. The Second Chance Pell experiment is authorized to continue for the 2019-2020 award year, but Congress must act if it wants to make these opportunities permanent.

Matt received a Pell Grant while incarcerated not long before most prisoners lost access to the funds. "I was able to begin work on my bachelor's, and I was able to finish an associate degree—two-year degree—with the Pell Grant," he says.

Matt went on to finish his undergraduate studies and go on to receive a master's degree while behind bars. Today he operates the software that runs his employer's digital printers. A "Pell Grant is what got me started, and … really what made the difference," he says. Regarding his education and professors, Matt adds, "It was an honor. It was a privilege. It was something I took very seriously because of their time commitment."

Matt, like many other incarcerated men and women who received Pell Grants in the past, discovered that education helped him to flourish—something Hans Stoffregen learned as well.

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

These benefits are why Prison Fellowship^® is urging lawmakers to lift the ban on Pell Grants for all students behind bars—in state and federal prisons—regardless of the type of offense that brought them to prison.

And there is a window of opportunity. Policymakers, including those in the White House, are now reconsidering the ban on Pell Grants for prisoners. We are hopeful that lawmakers will support the inclusion of such language in the Higher Education Act, which is currently being reauthorized. The issue of restoring prisoners' access to Pell Grants already has bipartisan support, as evidenced by the introduction of the REAL Act.

The issue also has support from corrections officials. In 1994, corrections officers and wardens defended Pell Grant access for prisoners, and they are now advocating for its restoration in 2019. Their logic is clear: Correctional education is a crucial tool for improving prison culture and preparing incarcerated men and women for reentry.