The eligibility rules of state financial aid programs vary widely by state and by program. This is also true of eligibility rules pertaining to students impacted by the justice system. This goal of this resource is to enable stakeholders to compare eligibility requirements pertaining to justice system impact across major aid programs and…

Incarcerated individuals have lower educational attainment than the general population, but education plays an important part in their re-entry into society. Prison education has shown to increase the likelihood of employment upon release and reduced recidivism. With about 1.5 million incarcerated individuals in state and federal prisons, and…

Currently, an option of Pell Grant eligibility for the Second Chance Pell (SCP) experiment is priority given to students who will be released within 5 years of enrollment in the college program. Using the 2014 U.S. PIAAC Prison Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this analysis evaluates the demographics of…

On Dec. 21, 2020, Congress lifted the 26-year ban on federal student aid--specifically, the Pell grant--for those who are incarcerated. The decision came after a long push for prison reforms that included calls for a greater emphasis on rehabilitation, reducing prison populations, and making prison sentences less harsh. New England has long been a…