Pell Grant eligibility for students in prisons to be reinstated in July

John A. Davis Juvenile Hall in Martinez

Credit: Courtesy Contra Costa County

For the first time in nearly three decades, people incarcerated nationwide will have expanded access to the federal Pell Grant on July 1 to help pay for the cost of college education programs.

“From a purely symbolic perspective, it’s incredibly powerful … that we are trying to find ways to give them the resources to succeed,” said Keramet Reiter, director of the first University of California bachelor’s program for students in prison.

While Pell Grant eligibility will widen beginning July 1, significant barriers will remain for incarcerated students and educators alike as they navigate the complex set of regulations that programs must follow for their students to receive federal grants.

“The regulations are being built with the program, and it’s a little bit anxiety-producing,” said Reiter, who helped launch the UC Irvine program last year. “We’re just figuring it out one step at a time.”

For one, only students enrolled in eligible prison education programs will be considered for Pell Grants. These programs, also known as PEPs, provide postsecondary credentials, including certificates, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees, and are offered inside correctional facilities.

In California, there are eight eligible programs. The state has already created some financial pathways for incarcerated students. For example, every prison in the state offers community college programs that confer associate degrees for students. 

It becomes more difficult for students who continue beyond the associate degree, as few prisons offer bachelor’s programs. This is where Pell Grant reinstatement could be most powerful for students. 

Since 2016, there have been 210 associate degree completions and 38 bachelor’s degrees conferred using the Pell Grant in California, according to Ruth Delaney, associate initiative director with the Vera Institute of Justice, a non-profit organization that provides technical assistance for prison education programs. 

This is an undercount, said Delaney, because the numbers are self-reported and not all education programs have regularly responded to the survey requesting this information. 

The program at UC Irvine, called LIFTED, is not yet eligible for Pell access. They are in the process of their eligibility screening process, as it would widen the services they can offer to students. 

This past year, 26 students incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County were admitted to the university. Their studies are funded by the UC Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which covers tuition and fees for any California residents with significant financial need. 

Students received their associate degrees via Southwest College, which is a Pell-eligible program.

For a program to access Pell funding, it must be approved by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a college accreditation agency, and the U.S. Department of Education. California works with two accreditation agencies: WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) or the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC). 

This approval oversight by the prison system is one of the aspects of the eligibility process that educators have raised concerns about. 

“Certainly there needs to be oversight and rules and regulations, but part of the value of providing education to people inside is to give them opportunities and connections to other institutions and to focus on funding the things that work, which is education, as opposed to the things that don’t work, which is prison,” Reiter said. 

“And so I’m always wary of giving too much control to prison systems that already have a large amount of control, and that’s part of the problem.”

Some of the criteria assessed during this approval process include how easily course credits can be transferred between educational institutions, the academic credentials of instructors, the instructors’ turnover rate, and whether educational programming and support services are comparable to those offered on a college campus outside prison.

Comparability to an outside college program is “the central puzzle to the implementation of this legislation,” said Delaney. 

A PEP is subject to the prison’s schedule, which often means there is little to no time outside of classroom instruction to offer additional academic advising and support services that may be comparable to those offered on a campus outside prison. But including this as a regulation means it may be prioritized, Delaney said.

“The idea of having this built into the regulations is a really good thing because it gives everybody a reason to be like, ‘OK, we have to do this. It’s not optional,’” Delaney said, noting that there are no examples of what this regulation might look like because it’s yet to be implemented. 

Once enrolled in an eligible PEP, a student’s Pell Grant can cover tuition, fees, books, course materials, supplies, equipment, and the cost of obtaining a license, certification or first professional credential.

But not all prisons offer eligible education programs. If a student is completing a postsecondary program and is then transferred to another institution, there’s a chance the new institution may not have the type of program required for that student to continue receiving Pell Grant funding. If the student does not complete the education program being paid by a Pell Grant, there is a chance they may have to repay it.

It’s in these instances where a strong partnership between the educational institution and the prison staff is vital so that students’ academic paths remain as smooth as possible, according to Reiter. 

Even once enrolled in an eligible PEP, specific student eligibility depends on their individual circumstances. Students must first submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA. 

This presents some challenges, according to Delaney. 

With many prisons limiting internet access, citing security concerns, applicants may be required to complete a paper version of the application and ask the college operating their PEP to submit it online on their behalf. 

Then there’s the impact of different family structures. “It’s easy to fill out the FAFSA if you are in a nuclear middle-class family. If you have literally anything else, it’s just going to be more complicated,” said Delaney. 

“Knowing the way that policing and incarceration disrupts generations of families, you’re just not going to see as much of that family structure.”

And because many in prison have not previously filled out the FAFSA, it’s difficult to estimate how many of them may be eligible for the Pell Grant. 

To be Pell-eligible, the applicant must demonstrate exceptional financial need, be a U.S. citizen or an “eligible noncitizen,” pursue a degree or certificate in an approved program, and not have earned a bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree. 

The maximum amount that can be awarded during the upcoming school year is $7,395. 

Students can receive the grants for no more than 12 academic terms, which roughly equals to six years. 

This term limit is an additional concern for educators like Reiter who worry that private, predatory programs may be able to access Pell grants and offer classes to students, without the option of completing a viable degree. Once those federal funds are used up, financial aid options for incarcerated students become severely limited, if not eliminated.

The return of the Pell grant for students in prisons has occurred incrementally since 2015, when the Obama-Biden administration established the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program and made the grants available for an initial 12,000 students. In the first four years of the program, over 7,000 students nationwide received higher education degrees and certifications. 

At the same time in California, a state law funded in-person higher education programs in state prisons by partnering them with local community colleges. CSU Los Angeles followed by creating the first in-person bachelor’s program in 2016, funded initially by a grant and then as part of the Second Chance program. UC Irvine began planning its program in 2018 and launched in 2022.

The removal of Pell eligibility began in 1992 with an amendment to the Higher Education Act. This amendment removed eligibility from people serving life sentences without parole and those sentenced to death. Then, the signing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, often referred to as “the 1994 crime bill” made all incarcerated people ineligible for the federal Pell Grant. 

With most colleges in prison relying on federal funding, the number of education programs plummeted after these exclusions. 

By 1997, only eight college programs existed in prisons — a drop from an estimated 772 programs in the early ’90s, according to a report from the American Enterprise Institute think tank. 

Since then, advocates and researchers alike have called for a reversal, citing a multitude of studies that show the positive impacts of access to education for those in the justice system. 

A 2019 study by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice found that people who participated in prison education programs were 48% less likely to return to prison. 

Additionally, people enrolled in education programs while incarcerated are up to 13% more likely to obtain a job, according to a 2013 meta-analysis by the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan research organization. 

But with Pell reinstatement just a few weeks away, it’s clear that accessing the grants will remain difficult for some time. 

Reiter said, “There are just lots of potential roadblocks here to true widespread access in the way that people are hopeful about.”