The report and survey reveal a number of barriers to greater enrollment of those eligible in postsecondary correctional education. Survey respondents identified limited funding, restrictive eligibility criteria, conflicting administrative priorities, poor academic preparation and logistical problems such as security concerns and frequent reassignments that interrupt coursework as some of the greatest obstacles. Most of all, survey respondents indicated that lack of support from policymakers and the public magnifies these barriers and makes providing consistent programming more challenging.
To address these challenges, the report calls for a national effort to build public support for postsecondary correctional education as an important means to reduce recidivism, and includes a series of recommendations and specific funding policy changes, such as reinstate Pell Grant eligibility for prisoners; expand the Incarcerated Youth Offender (IYO) Grant program; allocate additional state funds to the public colleges and universities that provide instruction for postsecondary correctional education programs; allow prisoners to receive state grants for low-income students; and diversify prison system funding to include public and private sources.
The report is available online at www.ihep.org.
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