Federal second chance Pell grants were recently made widely available to incarcerated students in the United States to fund undergraduate education. Piedmont Virginia Community College was a pilot site for this expansion and began full scale implementation of transfer-oriented associate degrees at three correctional centers in its service area.…

In August 2015, the U.S. Department of Education announced an experimental program that would allow higher education institutions to offer postsecondary educational programs inside adult prisons. The U.S. Department of Education's Second Chance Pell Grant Experimental Sites Initiative would allow state and federal incarcerated students to apply…

Incarcerated students are generally prohibited from receiving Pell grants, which provide need-based federal financial aid to low-income undergraduate students. However, Education has the authority to waive specific statutory or regulatory requirements for providing federal student aid at schools approved to participate in its experiments.…

College-in-prison programs are run by accredited universities and colleges, and allow participants to earn college degrees intended to facilitate positive real-world outcomes outside of the criminal justice system. Reduced rates of recidivism and increased employment opportunities are among the most cited benefits of providing higher education to…

The Career Preparation Capstone (CPC) provides technical college students with the opportunity to experience the culture inside of a correctional facility to gain professional development and exposure to one of the core components of the criminal justice system, the field of corrections. Criminal Justice students will be required to attend…

In the current economic climate it is more crucial than ever to select federal spending projects that are visionary as well as cost-effective. Saving money today may well cost money tomorrow. Such is the case with correctional education postsecondary programming. Selling vocational or trade-training for offenders to the general public is much…

Research in correctional education has focused on examining outcomes for participants and identifying principles and guidelines that reflect best practice. Relatively few studies have focused on postsecondary education programs and fewer still have sought to relate program implementation to student outcomes to inform program design and improve…