By Catherine Brown, Senior Director, Policy and Advocacy, and Louisa Woodhouse, Senior Associate, Policy
Reading time: Two minutes
The new Pell Grant for Prison Education Programs (PEPs), launched on July 1, 2023, by the US Department of Education, offers a powerful opportunity to advance racial
and economic justice. For the first time since the 1990s, people who are incarcerated will be able to access Pell Grants to pay for postsecondary education. While the Second Chance Pell pilot programs, starting in 2015, have allowed access to the Pell Grant for students in a small number of PEPs, the new program expands Pell eligibility to all people who are incarcerated. Black Americans, who are imprisoned at higher rates and receive longer sentences than white Americans, stand to benefit profoundly from this expansion of access to one of the greatest levers for social and economic mobility – a college degree. Research shows those who receive postsecondary education in prison are 48% less likely to return to prison than those who do not, and most high-growth, high-wage jobs require a degree or credential beyond high school. Unfortunately,
the opportunity to attain a postsecondary degree is not evenly distributed and only 35% of state prisons offer college programming.
As the number of prison education programs grows in the coming years, a diverse set of stakeholders will be needed to ensure the program is equitably implemented and successful. The regulations require a lengthy process for prison education program approval. Institutions of higher education must demonstrate that students can transfer and apply credits towards a degree at any location of the college that offers a comparable program and
offer career advising and student support services to students that are comparable to those offered on college campuses. With their expertise and longstanding roots in communities across the country, National College Attainment Network (NCAN) member
college access and success (CAS) programs are perfectly positioned to help address these needs.
To help organization successfully launch and sustain a PEP, NCAN has created this resource center that walks you through starting a program, finding partners, how to work with incarcerated
students, career support, and much more.
This project is building a cohort of program leaders around the country with expertise in expanding their CAS services to students who are currently
and formerly incarcerated with a particular emphasis on students transitioning from prison to a brick-and-mortar college campus. This cohort is receiving intensive professional development and training to engage PEPs and emerge from the project poised
to support future CAS programs as more PEPs launch and more students exit prison and enroll in campuses in the free world. By building a cadre of CAS PEP experts, NCAN will help ensure that the PEPs are successful over the long term and that incarcerated
students have the guidance and support they need to attain a postsecondary degree.
Email to a Friend