Education: Administration and Implementation

This document outlines the State University of New York's (SUNY's) commitment to educational equity for all incarcerated students in New York State correctional facilities.

"With the reinstatement of Pell and TAP funding, and in collaboration with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and other identifiable stakeholders, SUNY seeks to increase and expand incarcerated individuals access to quality post-secondary education, both during and after incarceration."

This toolkit from the State University of New York (SUNY) Higher Education for the Justice-Involved (HEJI) program serves as a guide for administrators in recruiting and training staff for their prison education programs. 

The first goal of this document is to help guide programs through developing, hiring, and training practices that can support quality programming inside the correctional facility. The second goal is to generate a larger conversation about what programs consider to be best practices and how hiring, training, and supporting faculty contribute to the overall goals of building and maintaining quality college in prison programming. 

To that end, Part I of this toolkit is designed for program administrators who are developing or overseeing hiring for their college in prison program. It outlines the role of the professor in prison settings and identifies the qualities to look for in candidates applying to teach in prison. 

Part II, which was created for both faculty and program administrators, speaks to training for faculty once they’ve been hired and ongoing professional development. It offers a set of best practices for faculty who are considering teaching in prison. These materials are created with the acknowledgment that programs need to develop their own unique processes and practices conducive to their campus settings and capacities, and thus there should be expected variation.

This news article from Open Campus discusses the impact of prison closures on incarcerated students. 

As California closes three more prisons and downsizes six others, some prisoners aren’t ready to go. They are worried about the future of their education. California Governor Gavin Newsom is closing and downsizing prisons across the state, putting the future of over a thousand incarcerated students at risk. College administrators say they have few resources to help.

This news article from Open Campus discusses the potential affects of culturally relevant content on Indigenous students.

This news article from Open Campus takes us inside a prison education program in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

This news article from Open Campus examines the use of tablets in prison. 

These best practices from Jobs for the Future (JFF) can help those involved in prison education build post-release educational pathways for incarcerated students. 

For many people who are incarcerated, postsecondary classes offered by the facility in which they’re serving their sentence represent a first step on an educational journey that is likely to continue after they are released—one that could ultimately lead to an industry-recognized credential, an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or even a master’s degree or a PhD. To facilitate the process of moving from incarceration to on-campus or online classes, colleges and their partners must develop structures and programs that are intentionally designed to support people who are navigating this transition. This brief offers practitioner-informed recommendations from Rutgers University’s New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP) initiative, the higher education in prison program at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Iowa, and Prison-to-Professionals (P2P) that can help colleges create pathways that honor and support students’ visions for reentering their communities and continuing their educations.  

The information provided here from Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a snapshot of factors to consider when offering programs to students who are incarcerated and who are not eligible for Pell Grants. Universities and colleges are individually operated, and not all strategies are equally applicable.

This resource from Jobs for the Future (JFF) is designed to help prison education programs, correctional agencies, and financial aid departments establish the critical partnerships necessary to effectively administer the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to incarcerated students. Keep in mind that the details may vary depending on state and local context.

This report details the scope of CUNY’s policies and programs for students impacted by the criminal legal system and explores opportunities for CUNY to better support those students. As an engine for upward social mobility, CUNY is well positioned to promote the educational and professional advancement of students who have been historically denied access to higher education, especially students who have been involved in the criminal legal system. Higher education transforms lives, creates opportunities, and mitigates the collateral consequences of mass incarceration. This report should serve as a catalyst and foundation for developing a more comprehensive and integrated approach to welcoming and supporting students with past criminal legal system involvement at the country’s largest urban university system.

This report examines both the history and scope of college in prison programs across New York State. This report also describes the existing programs and incorporates the perspectives of DOCCS officials, college administrators, and incarcerated students.

This fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office explains eligibility requirements for incarcerated students.  

This guide is part of an effort to provide college providers with the necessary tools for developing programs that are responsive to the unique environment of correctional facilities. While designed specifically for college programs that operate in New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision facilities, this guide may also be useful for organizations and colleges outside of New York that wish to establish or enhance college in prison programs. 

Access to education is in high demand among the incarcerated population. There are clear benefits to students who are incarcerated, their families and communities, public safety, and safety inside prisons. Yet the gap in educational aspirations and participation has been largely driven by a lack of capacity due to limited funding.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative funded the College-in-Prison Reentry Initiative (CIP) to close this gap by expanding access to college education in prisons throughout New York State. This fact sheet unpacks the impact of participation in degree programs offered by seven colleges participating in CIP and reveal the effects that college in prison can have on in-facility behavior, recidivism, employment, and income after release.

This fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office provides answers to common questions from incarcerated students seeking financial aid.

This story from Margaret diZerega, Initiative Director for the Vera Institute of Justice's Center for Sentencing and Corrections and Unlocking Potential, and Hannah Eddy, Communications Manager for Unlocking Potential, discusses the "closed doors" many individuals with a criminal record face in pursuing postsecondary education, and highlights the forthcoming reinstatement of federal need-based financial aid—or Pell Grants—for people in prison as a solution with the potential to open many doors come July 1, 2023.

As the story explores, across the United States, education and corrections leaders are preparing for a wave of new colleges, particularly four-year universities, to launch programs in prisons. The authors discuss the fact that, anticipating this new opportunity to expand access, states like Colorado and Tennessee have begun to bring together four-year and community colleges, departments of corrections, education-focused nonprofits, and—for the first time—state departments of higher education to foster communication among these partners, improve collaboration, and begin creating more effective state systems for higher education in prisons.

In this research brief, researchers share findings from incarcerated students and alumni regarding their experiences with technology during enrollment in postsecondary education and participation in Second Chance Pell. 

In this research brief, researchers share findings from incarcerated students, alumni, and formerly incarcerated participants regarding their academic experiences during enrollment in postsecondary education and participation in Second Chance Pell. 

The 1994 Crime Bill barred incarcerated students from receiving Pell Grants. In 2015, the Second Chance Pell Experiment began allowing a select number of institutions of higher education to provide Pell Grants to eligible incarcerated students. The Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison conducted a three-year study with participants at select Second Chance Pell sites to learn about their experiences with implementation. The administrators and program leaders, as well as currently and formerly incarcerated students and alumni, participating in our Exploring the Experiences of Participants in Second Chance Pell study identified numerous challenges that they face in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and accessing Pell Grants in their current form. The challenges that study participants articulated are listed in the first column of the table in the linked document.

Passed in December 2020, the FAFSA Simplification Act amendments eliminate the 1994 ban on Pell Grants for students in state and federal prisons; incarcerated students who enroll in approved prison education programs will be able to access Pell beginning in 2023. From fall 2021 to spring 2022, the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison at the University of Utah conducted 21 focus groups with over 100 currently or formerly incarcerated students and alumni. These students are among the few who have already received Pell Grants through the Second Chance Pell Experiment, launched in 2015. This document lays out the most frequently asked questions and answers from student and alumni focus groups, using the best available information as of October 2022. The larger project from which these data are drawn, Exploring the Experiences of Participants in Second Chance Pell, is a mixed-methods research study examining the implementation and facilitation of the Second Chance Pell Experiment.