Greater access to a postsecondary education due to Pell Grant awards would equip incarcerated individuals with the job skills they need to compete in the workforce, increase formerly incarcerated individuals’ employment rates and earnings and reduce recidivism, saving states a combined $365.8 million in prison costs each year.
That’s the findings of a new study from the Vera Institute of Justice and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality (GCPI).
The report, titled “Investing in Futures: Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Postsecondary Education in Prison,” calls on Congressional leaders to lift the ban on Pell Grants for people in prison, which would make nearly 463,000 incarcerated people eligible for funding for a postsecondary education. Reinstating Pell for the more than 64 percent of incarcerated people who are academically eligible to enroll in postsecondary education would likely yield a “cascade of economic and fiscal benefits,” the report emphasized.
“The problem is that, even if a prison has courses available, the majority of people simply cannot afford to enroll,” said Margaret diZerega, project director at the Vera Institute of Justice, in a media briefing. “To improve the odds that individuals coming out of prison can obtain employment, find housing and otherwise disrupt the cycles of poverty and mass incarceration, we must expand access to postsecondary education to those individuals while they are in prison.”
This week’s report on the fiscal and economic benefits of reinstating Pell Grants for people in prison comes on the heels of the December passage of the FIRST STEP Act by Congress, a bipartisan effort to address criminal justice reform. The moment reveals an opportunity to leverage the near unanimous consent that the criminal justice system is “not working as it should” be, said Nick Turner, president of the Vera Institute.
“The ban on Pell Grants for people in prison, in particular, limits their economic opportunity and is a missed opportunity to allow people to better prepare themselves for life after release,” added Indi Dutta Gupta, co-executive director at GCPI.
Additional report findings include:
