Giving Compass' Take:

• Douglass Wood, in an article for The Aspen Institute, highlights one activist's unprecedented role in creating opportunities for education in prison.

• What will it take to keep the movement for education in prison going? What can we do to help impact important policy for inmates' educational opportunities?

• Read more about the state of postsecondary education in prison.

Doris Buffett was one of a kind—thoughtful, direct, intelligent, generous, dedicated, committed, strong, witty. Among her many philanthropic endeavors, which also included women’s rights, Doris was a proponent of high-quality postsecondary opportunities for incarcerated students. She filled the void for many years as one of the only funders of college-in-prison programs in the US. “I’m perfectly willing to put money where the greatest need is,” she said in an interview at a Sing Sing graduation.

Not everyone felt this way. With the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Congress banned incarcerated individuals seeking postsecondary education from accessing Pell grants. The number of participating students dropped by nearly half (44%) within a year of this decision. In the ensuing decade, over 90% of college-in-prison programs across the country folded. But thanks to advocates, grassroots organizations, investments from the private sector and foundations, and Doris’ work, the momentum has steadily grown for the development and implementation of such programs. This July, the US House of Representatives voted to lift the ban on Pell grants for individuals in state and federal prisons.

Disparities in educational attainment between incarcerated individuals and the general population are striking. With nearly 500,000 people coming out of prison every year—the majority of whom are not equipped with the requisite skills for employment— and with the reduction in prison populations across the country, access to quality educational programming while in prison is increasingly imperative. Access to higher education for incarcerated individuals is particularly critical both while in prison and during the reentry process. Without it, members of this population will not have the tools they need to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

Read the full article about education in prison by Douglass Wood at The Aspen Institute.