Giving Compass' Take:

• Pell grants provide an opportunity to reduce recidivism and improve former-inmates lives.

• How could other education programs replace or supplement Pell grants for prisoners? How can philanthropy support policy reforms to lower recidivism rates? 

• Learn about other programs aimed at reducing recidivism rates.

Obama revived Pell grants for prisoners, but the program expires soon.

The Rev. Vivian Nixon remembers the first time she met with the Justice Department to brainstorm about ways to keep people from returning to prison once they got out. It was 2010, and she was one of a handful of formerly incarcerated people at the table.

Among the group’s suggestions were restoring Pell grants for prisoners. The grants help low-income students pay for higher education and were available for prisoners until 1994, when Congress banned inmates from the program.

Congress hasn’t changed its mind, but at the urging of advocates like Nixon, the Department of Education under former President Barack Obama greenlit a pilot program in 2015 that extended Pell grants to thousands of inmates. But every year the department must decide whether to continue the pilot, making its fate uncertain.

Unless lawmakers reverse the 1994 ban or the Department of Education gives a new go-ahead, many of the roughly 4,000 inmates currently enrolled in a Pell-funded program are likely to lose access to college classes and vocational training at the end of the year.

Research shows that prison education can help keep people from returning to prison. A 2013 meta-analysis conducted by the RAND Corporation and funded by the Department of Justice found that inmates who received an education while incarcerated were 43 percent less likely to be arrested for another crime than those who did not participate in any education programs.

Read the full article on Pell grants for prisoners by Nicole Lewis at The Marshall Project