This article takes up the central question of how college-level prison education programs should be justified and defended. Author Patrick Filipe Conway argues that the focus on recidivism rates as justification for major initiatives like the Second Chance Pell Program and New York governor Andrew Cuomo's Right Priorities initiative is misguided…

Passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) represented a landmark effort by the federal government to minimize the cost of college as a barrier to postsecondary access for low-income students and their families. Since then, a myriad of financial aid programs have been designed to equalize educational opportunity. Most recently, the Health…