I tell the stories of those trying to stay out of prison. My own story includes the message that I am very fortunate not to have a criminal record and to have a college education.
Back in May 1998, I wrote my first article advocating education and mentorship. Today I have two articles from Inside Higher Ed (www.insidehighered.com) that indicate the value of an education to those who are in prison.
The first one — “A prisoner describes his and other inmates’ struggles for access to higher education” — is written by Lyle C. May who is incarcerated. He received a private investment to complete an associate degree in arts in 2013 at Ohio University. He writes that the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (Get Tough on Crime) enacted by President Clinton eliminated Pell Grants for post-secondary correctional education. As a result, most college-in-prison programs disappeared. “Today, in 25 states, no college programs are available to prisoners,” he writes. The Act deterred most rehabilitative programming. Prisoners were in prison “to be punished and held for the duration of a sentence. Nothing more.” The beliefs that ended Pell Grants “are vengeful, frenzied appeals toward draconian laws that most modern democracies left in the annals of history… [they] do not advance criminal justice nor make communities safer.” He opines that the Second Chance Pell pilot program and the First Step Act (the latter I may have had a part in) are “just baby steps up the side of the mountain.”
The second article — “A new study illuminates why the barriers to higher education that incarcerated people confront should be removed (opinion)” — was submitted by Sarah Bray:
“The new study by the Council of State Governments Justice Center (Megan Quattlebaum, Director) with support from Lumina Foundation (Haley Glover, Strategy Director) highlights a variety of barriers to education that appear in state law and the rules and regulations of departments of corrections. Few states are spared in the report. As many as 25 states bar people who are incarcerated from educational opportunities because of the length of sentence they’re serving. Twelve states restrict educational opportunities because of the type of crime people were convicted of. Overall, just 10 states allow access to all educational opportunities in their correctional facilities.”
Some notes from the articles:
Barriers are not eliminated when people leave prison. Half of all public universities require applicants to disclose their criminal history. More than 1/3 of states limit access to state-based financial aid for those who have a criminal record or who have been convicted of specific crimes.
People who participate in prison ed are 13% more likely to get a job than those who don’t.
Similarly, in my July 2019 article “Prison Reform in Alabama,” Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) was sponsoring a bill that would remove more than 700 sections of code from the Alabama constitution that restricts jobs that people can get after being released from prison. How can a person freed from prison become a contributing member of society if the law bars him from getting a job or an education? In late January 2020, the results of a study were presented to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. More on that maybe next time.