Abstract

Since the mid-1990s scholars, practitioners and policy-makers have consistently identified the ban on Pell eligibility for prisoners as the primary cause for the decline of post-secondary education programs in prisons nationwide. In 2015, the Second Chance Pell (SCP) pilot program authorized reinstatement of Pell eligibility for prisoners with the goal of providing post-secondary educational opportunities in prisons. However, SCP programs used fewer than half of the available Pell grants in the first three years of the program. We analyze novel data from a sample of individuals in Pennsylvania prisons to estimate population-level eligibility for SCP. We find demand in excess and uptake far below availability, which is a consequence of multiple barriers to eligibility. In the absence of significant reforms designed to address collateral ineligibility for Pell grants among the population of incarcerated individuals, there will be systematically low utilization of Pell-funded higher education programming in prisons.

摘要

自 1990 年代中期以来，学者、从业人员和政策制定者一直认为，禁止 Pell 为囚犯提供资格是全国监狱中学后教育计划下降的主要原因。2015 年，Second Chance Pell (SCP) 试点计划授权为囚犯恢复 Pell 资格，目标是在监狱中提供中学后教育机会。然而，SCP 项目在项目的前三年使用了不到一半的可用 Pell 资助。我们分析来自宾夕法尼亚监狱的个人样本的新数据，以估计人口水平的 SCP 资格。我们发现需求过剩且吸收量远低于可用性，这是多重资格障碍的结果。