Campaign Action
When it comes to restoring rights for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in the U.S., the discussion too often lives and dies around voting rights. And make no mistake: Voting matters. But when it comes to helping formerly incarcerated people stay out of prison, one of the biggest factors is access to education. Receiving education while incarcerated has also been shown to increase a person’s opportunities for work (and higher pay) after release.
But—as is too often the norm—systemic barriers are in place that limit people’s ability to receive an affordable education. Finally, a bipartisan effort is working to change that. And the resulting bill is moving closer to Congress.
For decades, incarcerated people have not had access to federal Pell Grants. Pell Grants are need-based financial grants meant to support low-income people in pursuing higher education. Pell Grants are not loans, so they don’t need to be paid back. There are a number of requirements for recipients of Pell Grants, but generally they go to students who have not yet received a bachelor’s degree and whose families’ annual income is below $50,000. They can be applied to fall, spring, or summer courses, and the amount the student receives varies based on the cost of their particular institution. These grants can also go toward expenses such as books.
Basically, Pell Grants are immeasurably important. And incarcerated people who would otherwise meet the qualifications for the grant deserve them just as much as anybody else.
As supporters and lawmakers behind the Restoring Education and Learning Act, known as the REAL Act, explain, the bill would give incarcerated individuals back their eligibility to receive Pell Grants, meaning that incarcerated people would be eligible to take courses paid for by Pell Grants while still incarcerated. In order to make this possible, the bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, which currently bans giving incarcerated people access to Pell Grants.
Notably, the ban doesn’t go back to the ‘60s. Pell Grants didn’t even exist in the ‘60s; they were created in 1972, and at the time they included incarcerated people. The ban was actually put in place in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. More recently, in 2015, President Barack Obama introduced the Second Chance Pell, a pilot program that aims to serve incarcerated people who would otherwise qualify for Pell Grants but don’t because of the ban.
In practice, the Second Chance program has helped roughly 10,000 inmates and spanned 64 institutions, including workforce training programs, universities, and community colleges. The program has no specific end date, but as reported by Elissa Nadworny at NPR, it will likely continue for three to five years. If the REAL Act passes, however, it would keep this initiative alive.
The overall goal is to make higher education affordable and accessible to incarcerated people. At the most basic level, this is the just and humane thing to do. And again, data shows that education reduces the likelihood of someone returning to prison. One 2014 study, for instance, shows that "inmates who participate in correctional education programs had a 43 percent lower chance of recidivating than those who did not.”
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. In a statement, he says that the REAL Act would "empower individuals to better themselves through education and find career paths once they reenter society." Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, issued a similar sentiment in the statement he released, saying, "When we give people in prison an opportunity to earn an education, our communities are safer, taxpayers save money, and we can end the cycle of recidivism. The REAL Act would restore a program we know already works and give people a real chance to rebuild their lives."
Schatz has been a longtime supporter of this sort of legislation. In 2016 he introduced legislation to return Pell Grant eligibility to incarcerated people. That legislation didn’t make it out of committee.
To put into perspective how important this is, right now, less than 10 percent of people complete college classes while incarcerated. Incarcerated people who do participate in postsecondary education (the sort of education the Pell Grants cover) are 43 percent less likely to commit crimes or be found with parole violations after they are released. They are also both more likely to find employment and earn more at that employment than those who don’t.
As of now, the REAL Act has support from both Democrats and Republicans. It’s time for Congress—and Trump—to pass this important legislation into law.