College Included in Inaugural Cohort of “Ready for Pell” Prison Education Programs

March 10, 2022

Jobs for the Future (JFF) announced that Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology is among 22 recipients of Ascendium Education Group’s Ready for Pell initiative. Ready for Pell is designed to help institutions that provide postsecondary education in prisons navigate the upcoming changes to the Pell Grant program for student financial assistance, giving learners who are incarcerated new opportunities for educational attainment and increased economic mobility.

The college currently serves men in the School of Reentry at the Boston Pre-Release Center, providing a “whole student” approach, including personal development, and workforce training classes, and technical credential programs that include Automotive Technology (associate’s degree), HVAC&R (Certificate), Practical Electricity (Certificate), and Opticianry (associate’s degree). As part of the Ready for Pell initiative, the college will expand the offerings of credential programs to multiple corrections facilities.

In all, two state systems and 20 colleges in 16 states will receive up to $120,000 in funding to expand postsecondary education in prison (PEP) programs in advance of the restoration of Pell Grant eligibility in 2023. Since 1994, people who are incarcerated have been prohibited from receiving Pell Grants, resulting in a decrease in PEP programs and negatively impacting reentry outcomes.

With eligibility returning in 2023, the Ready for Pell initiative will help institutions enhance program quality and ensure eligible students are able to access and maximize the use of Pell funds as they pursue postsecondary education in prison and beyond.

“The outcomes from this initiative have the potential to scale and transform postsecondary education for learners who are incarcerated, benefiting those individuals, their future employers, and the public at large,” says Lucretia Murphy, associate vice president at JFF. “JFF is so excited to work with these grantees as part of a movement for quality and equity in postsecondary education programs.”

The Ready for Pell cohort is representative of PEP programs across the country. It includes emerging and established programs offering career and technical education, associate’s and baccalaureate pathways in facilities housing men and women. JFF and Ascendium will work with RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, as a third-party evaluator to document the experiences of the grantees and their prison partners with implementation and impact.

“Our evaluation—from beginning to end—will be guided by people who have been directly impacted by incarceration,” said Michelle Tolbert, senior education researcher at RTI and the evaluation lead.

According to the Vera Institute for Justice’s 2019 report, Investing in Futures, nearly 500,000 currently incarcerated people would be eligible for Pell Grants. Research shows that people who participate in college-in-prison programs are far more likely to find stable, family-supporting employment after their release and far less likely to return to prison.

“We typically support only systems-level efforts, but we thought it was tremendously important to flex just slightly outside the bounds of our grantmaking strategy to meet this moment,” said Rebecca Villarreal, Ascendium’s director of education philanthropy. “We really wanted to expand the number of programs, colleges, universities, and states preparing for the complexity of administering Pell in a carceral setting and providing access to high-quality educational pathways.”

See the JFF-Ascendium press release with a full list of grant recipients.