The challenge: This paper examines the state of knowledge and evaluation in prison higher education. Little is known about its efforts, outcomes, and impact or about the students enrolled in such efforts. Potential consequences: Incarcerated college students are a disenfranchised population with restricted autonomy. Without understanding prison…

In this chapter, I argue that prison education is dangerous. In a context where individual incarcerated people have restricted autonomy, non-incarcerated students, staff, and faculty from colleges and universities can cause real harm by neglecting to consider the vast power differentials between non- or never-incarcerated educators and students in…

This research considers Pell grant restoration for incarcerated people for the field of higher education in prison. Using the original data, we outline the limits of Pell funding in the prison context by surfacing persistent funding challenges that the Pell grant alone cannot address and may exacerbate. By providing the necessary investments to…

The violence of incarceration creates greater responsibility for higher education administrators in supporting students who are in prison. Using focus group data with incarcerated students and formerly incarcerated alumni who participated in or are actively participating in Second Chance Pell, we explore their perceptions and understandings of the…