Over the years, Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) has worked to bring college courses inside prison walls.
With support from the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative (THEI), DSCC established an associate degree in business administration for incarcerated individuals at the Northwest Correctional Complex (NWCX) in 2017.
Since then, two cohorts of students have participated in the program.
“I think our faculty was [originally] a little skeptical about working with inmates …,” said Dr. Karen Bowyer, president of DSCC. “But they have been so impressed with how hard working and really how much of a team effort there has been. [The inmates have] formed study groups and they are so well-prepared. It is very refreshing for our faculty to really work with these students.”
The cost of incarceration is $27,000 per prisoner. However, it costs only $1,000 to $1,600 a year to provide an education to them, which has been proven to lower the rate of recidivism. Within Tennessee prisons, 95% will leave and almost 50% will be reincarcerated within three years, according to THEI.
As many colleges and universities are reducing their presence in correctional facilities across the nation, DSCC was chosen by the United States Department of Education in July to participate in the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative, which offers need-based Pell Grants to prison inmates.
Most recently, after receiving $918,750 as part of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s Correctional Education Initiative, DSCC’s prison education efforts expanded to include West Tennessee State Penitentiary (WTSP) and the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center (WTRC). A Bridge Program and five-semester business administration transfer degree was established this fall.
