The Crisis: The Nationwide Dismantling
of College Programs in Prisons
1982: There were over 350 college programs in prisons throughout the United States.
2001: Fewer than a dozen exist.
In 1994, President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law. This act included a provision that denied prisoners access to federal Pell Grants. New York State, like most other states, withdrew its support for college in prisons. Nationwide, all but 8 of the existing college programs in prison were dismantled.

THE GOOD NEWS: Changing Minds
In 1996, at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (BHCF), New York State’s maximum-security prison for women in Westchester County, a group of community members, the superintendent and an inmate committee met to reestablish college. By Spring of 1997, the College Bound program was underway, conferring B.A. degrees in Sociology from Marymount Manhattan College. To date, over 250 women at BHCF have been students in the College Bound program.

From 1997 to 2000, a systematic analysis of the impact of College Bound was undertaken by researchers from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and women in prison at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. The study includes a 36 month post-release reincarceration analysis conducted by the New York State Department of Correctional Services and a cost/benefit analysis of the college program validated by Dr. Michael Jacobson, former New York City Commissioner of Corrections. Funding was provided by the Leslie Glass Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

The results have now been published in a ground breaking report, Changing Minds. The evidence demonstrates that college-in-prison transforms lives, reduces reincarceration rates, creates safer prisons and communities, and reduces the need for tax dollars spent on prisons. Changing Minds documents that:

1. Participation in college-in-prison significantly reduces reincarceration rates and crime. Women who participated in the college program while in prison had a 7.7% reincarceration rate over 36 months compared to 29.9% for women who did not enroll in college while in prison.

2. College-in-prison creates a more “positively managed” prison environment with fewer disciplinary incidents. Interviews with correctional administrators and officers confirm the positive management consequences of college in prison.

3. Participation in college-in-prison positively affects the lives of prisoners and their children. College transforms the lives of women and their children, increasing their sense of social and personal responsibility, and significantly improving post-release outcomes.

4. Educating prisoners is significant and cost effective public policy. For every 100 college students educated in prison, approximately $900,000 in tax dollars now dedicated to prisons can be saved over two years through reduced reincarceration rates. Imagine the savings if college were offered to the 73,826 men and women incarcerated in New York State in the year 2000.

Changing Minds reveals the extraordinary personal, social and fiscal costs that all Americans pay for not educating prisoners. This study offers national and local policymakers, educators, activists and concerned citizens a policy direction that creates safer communities, reduces reincarceration rates and improves the prison environment, while helping prisoners and their families.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Key Facts
The history of higher education in prison: This is not a new idea!
• College-in-prison is not a new or radical idea — in 1982, over 350 college programs were available in prisons in 90% of the states in the US.
• Prior to 1995, Pell Grants supported the majority of students in prison college programs. Pell Grants are non-competitive needs-based federal funds available to all qualifying low-income individuals who wish to attend college degree programs. In or out of prison, individuals must meet the same income criteria to be awarded a Pell Grant.
• The total percentage of the annual Pell Grant budget spent on higher education in prison was l/10 of 1%. The Pell grant budget is determined by the amount of individuals who apply and qualify. Allowing prisoners access to Pell Grants does not take money away from individuals who are not in prison.
• Between 1988 and 1998, New York State reduced overall funding for public higher education by $615 million while increasing funding for prison and jails by $761 million.

The Need for Education
• Most men and women in prison come from poor urban neighborhoods of color (84% of people in prison are of color) with failing public schools.
• In New York State prisons, approximately 75% of prisoners enter prison without a high school diploma; in city jails, this figure leaps to 90%.

The Positive Impact of College-in-Prison
• 93% of prison superintendents strongly support educational and vocational programming in adult correctional facilities.
• A national review of 20 empirical studies reveals that higher education in prison dramatically reduces reincarceration rates for both men and women.
• Inmates who attend college while incarcerated have a significantly higher rates of employment (60-70%) upon release than those who do not (40%).
• College-in-prison transforms students’ sense of themselves, their sense of responsibility and their personal commitments to “giving back” to family and community. College paves the way for healthy transitions out of prison.
• College-in-prison positively affects the children of men and women in prison. Seventy-five percent of women in New York State prisons are mothers of children under the age of 18. National studies confirm that the education of a mother is the best predictor of the educational attainment of a child.

WHAT YOU CAN DO!!
An informed taxpaying, voting and concerned public is essential if we are to bring justice, efficiency and education into our criminal justice system, assuring safety in our communities.

Please Speak Out… and Share these KEY FACTS with
- your family, friends and neighbors
- your co-workers, fellow members of religious institutions, civic and social organizations
- your e-mail, mailing and telephone lists
and ask each person to spread the word!

• Create Teach-Ins to educate the public about the far-reaching negative effects of mass incarceration on communities throughout the nation and the very positive effects of college in prison. (Contact Speakers Bureau through The Center for Redirection through Education, see right.)
• Write letters to legislators and local newspapers explaining why higher education in prison matters!

Work for Quality Public Education and Include Prison-Based Education
Educators and activists working for educational reform, pre-kindergarten though college, should include the educational needs of women and men in prison and post-release.

• Contact a local college or university and encourage them to learn more about collaborating with prisons and/or establishing supportive post-release transition programs.
• Volunteer to teach, tutor, read books on tape, help prisoners pass their GED exams or learn English.
• Collect books and donate them to help build a library for a local prisons and jails.
• Teach Changing Minds in high school or college — in criminal justice, sociology, education, cultural studies, political science, psychology and women’s studies courses.
• Work to restore Pell Grants and State Grants (TAP in New York State) for men and women in prison and advocate for alternative sentencing that includes support for higher education and college preparation.