This is changing fundamentally the way I think, I behave, the way I interact with people.”
As Dyjuan Tatro, an incarcerated student profiled in a recently released documentary titled College Behind Bars shares : “This is not like just getting a degree. The reason for their support is simple: Postsecondary education can transform hearts and minds and equip individuals in prison to find jobs and make good decisions when reentering society. And now, there’s increasing support on both the Left and the Right for a clean lift of the Pell ban, with bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and in the Senate. In 2015, the Department of Education announced the creation of a Second Chance Pell pilot program, in which a limited number of individuals could receive Pell Grant funding at select institutions. Thankfully, in recent years, the tide has begun to turn. But once the ban was put in place, the number of educational programs fell markedly, signaling the loss of educational opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people without financial means in the years following. Indeed, in the years before the ban, educational programs behind bars flourished: Upward of 1,200 correctional facilities are estimated to have had educational programming at the time. Being incarcerated did not disqualify individuals with financial need from receiving Pell Grants until the passage of the 1994 crime control bill. As this year comes to a close, it’s time for lawmakers to take another step toward comprehensive criminal justice reform by reinstating Pell Grants for prisoners.įirst established under the Higher Education Act in 1965, federal Pell Grants provide students with need-based financial aid to pursue postsecondary education. The First Step Act reminded us that bipartisan criminal justice reform is possible even during such divisive times. And the lives of hundreds of thousands more stand to improve in the years to come.
The most comprehensive federal criminal justice reform legislation in a generation, thousands of individuals have already benefited as a result of its passage. It was just last December that law enforcement leaders, religious leaders, members of Congress, and criminal justice reform groups across the political spectrum came together to watch President Trump sign the First Step Act into law.
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