A ‘Second Chance' After 27 Years in Prison: How Criminal Justice Helped an Ex-Inmate Graduate

A piece of bipartisan legislation was introduced to the United States’ Senate in February 2018 that would give individuals in incarceration access to Pell Grants, thus increasing their college education opportunities. While the bill was not enacted, it is part of an ongoing process of reinstating access to Pell Grants for prisoners from the Obama administration, who gave limited access in its Second Chance program. This bill speaks to the largely bipartisan cultural shift that embraces the need to invest in correctional education in order to prevent recidivism.

After Colorado passed a state law requiring all jails to create in-person polling places for incarcerated voters, the number of ballots cast from county jails rose from 231 in 2022 to more than 2,300 in 2024.

With the new statewide Medicaid expansion, the Department of Adult Correction is working to ensure fewer people reenter society after incarceration and enter a healthcare coverage gap by helping people apply for Medicaid before release. With the Medicaid expansion, 80% of the 15,000 people released from prison each year are now eligible for coverage, and prison staff submit about 100 Medicaid applications each week.

At Connecticut’s MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, people experiencing incarceration have the opportunity to participate in postsecondary classes, even completing a certificate or degree. They’re able to do this because of the Second Chance Pell pilot program, started in 2015, which offers financial aid for inmates to access education. With bipartisan support, there’s hope that the pilot program will grow, as current research shows how the programming reduces recidivism and saves tax dollars.

Providing those experiencing incarceration with educational services has shown to reduce recidivism by 28%. While many prisons offer GED or higher education classes, the opportunities are still hard to come by consistently, so organizations like Underground Scholars help recruit individuals after prison to colleges. Looking forward, those pushing for criminal justice reform hope to overturn a 1994 legislation that banned incarcerated individuals from being eligible for Pell Grants, which could help drive more people from prison to school.

For the People identifies eligible cases for California’s resentencing law, conducts outreach to incarcerated women, reviews applications, and makes referrals to prosecutor resentencing units in participating counties in an effort to address the gender gap in resentencing cases. The program has helped resentence about 1,000 people, including three women, and is being implemented in five other states.

Project Rebound at the Pelican Bay State Prison is a partnership with California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt that provides associate and bachelor’s degree education to incarcerated individuals. Research shows access to higher education in prison lowers recidivism rates and increases the likelihood the person will find a job post-incarceration. Currently, about 14,000 incarcerated individuals in the state are taking classes toward a college degree, or about 15% of the prison population.

Two programs called FamilyWorks and the Storybook Program aim to improve the relationship between those who are incarcerated and their families. FamilyWorks conducts parenting classes and other education for inmates who may not know how to build a relationship with their children while in prison. Storybook offers inmates the chance to record themselves reading books to send along to their children. Inmates say that both programs taught them a lot and that they are better people for it.

The organization Southerners on New Ground is helping reform the criminal justice system in the south. Activists won a small victory in Atlanta, where the mayor and city council approved a resolution that replaced cash bonds with signature bonds for misdemeanor offenses. They also raised money to help people pay their cash bails as part of a larger event called the National Bail Out collective, which bailed out 147 Black women in 26 cities this year.

In Lebanon, services for refugees are often misguided and ineffective. To address this issue, the country created a cash-debit card allowance for refugees, providing a more appropriate resource than the typical aid program.