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Pell Grant pilot program for prisoners extended for 2019-20

Daily Oklahoman - 2/16/2019

Feb. 16--A pilot program that helps inmates pay for college behind bars will be extended for a fourth year.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday it renewed the Second Chance Pell initiative through 2019-20. The initiative provides need-based Pell Grants to people in prisons through partnerships with 65 colleges, including three in Oklahoma.

"It's a great deal with all the emphasis on criminal justice reform. It helps folks reintegrate into society," said Ron Ramming, president of Connors State College in Warner. "We've had great success with it."

Connors State has offered classes in business administration and general studies since 1997 at Jess Dunn Correctional Center near Muskogee and Eddie Warrior Correctional Center for women in Taft. Most inmates had to rely on scholarships and could afford only a few hours each semester before becoming eligible for Pell Grants, said Jody Butler, prison education coordinator at the college.

Now most students are full time. Spring enrollment is at capacity with 235 students at the two prisons, Butler said.

"This Second Chance Pell program really has opened the doors up," Ramming said.

Ramming said most faculty who go into the prisons to teach tell him it's a great experience.

"Students come prepared and are eager to learn. They know it's a way to a better life," Ramming said.

The pilot program was launched in 2016 with the goal of educating more prisoners so they can get jobs and support their families when they are released.

In Oklahoma, Connors, Tulsa Community College and Langston University are participating in the initiative.

According to the Department of Education, during the first school year of the pilot 8,500 students were awarded $13.2 million in Pell Grant funds. That grew to 11,000 students who were awarded $22 million in the second school year, and so far this school year 10,000 students have received about $13.4 million.

The vast majority of people in prison remain unable to access post-secondary programming due to the inability to pay. A report released by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality last month found that repealing the federal ban on Pell Grants for people in prison would increase employment rates after release by 10 percent, provide employers with a larger pool of skilled workers and reduce recidivism rates.

"Second Chance Pell has made clear that when barriers to post-secondary education in prison fall, enrollment will rise. However, we encourage Congress and the White House to go one step further," said Nick Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute.

"The federal ban on Pell grants for incarcerated people is a relic of the infamously punitive 1994 crime bill and has no place in an America that overwhelmingly supports common-sense criminal justice reform."

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