Inmate Students At CA Prisons Can Now Receive Federal Financial Aid

CALIFORNIA — Many prison inmates pursuing a four-year college degree in California — or across the country — are now eligible for federal Pell Grants, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Thursday.

The grants, which became available to qualifying inmates July 1, will open the opportunity for inmates "to further their learning and meet their rehabilitative goals," according to the CDCR.

Pell Grants are available for all low-income students who have not yet earned a bachelor’s or professional degree and are enrolled in an accredited college or university.

Eight CDCR prisons that offer bachelor’s degree programs through six state universities will be using Pell Grants. They are:

• Sacramento State University at Folsom State Prison and Mule Creek State Prison
• California State University, Los Angeles at California State Prison, Los Angeles County and California Institution for Women

• Fresno State University at Valley State Prison and California Correctional Women’s Facility
• San Diego State University at Centinela State Prison
• University of California Irvine at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility
• Cal Poly Humboldt at Pelican Bay State Prison (beginning spring 2024)

A ninth program is expected to start in 2024.

"CDCR anticipates this list will grow as colleges and universities obtain the required approvals," according to Thursday's CDCR announcement.

All of CDCR's Pell-approved bachelor's degree programs are face-to-face, with cohorts of students studying and learning together in the same yard; academic instruction is provided in person by university faculty, according to CDCR Information Officer Alia Cruz.

Although inmate students have access to laptops, they do not have internet service, Cruz explained.

The U.S. Department of Education reports the maximum amount of money available to any student via a Pell Grant is $7,395 (2023–24). That aid can be received for up to 12 college terms or the equivalent (roughly six years). The exact amount of Pell Grant aid depends on family financial contributions, cost of college attendance, full-time or part-time status, and whether attendance is a full academic year or less.

Pell Grants can be used to help cover tuition, fees, books and supplies. The money does not need to be repaid. Funds go directly to the academic institution; no money goes to the student inmate or CDCR.

Several studies show higher education reduces recidivism and provides a pathway for employment upon release from prison. A study from the RAND Corporation, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, found that inmates who took college classes while incarcerated were 48 percent less likely to return to prison within three years after getting out than those who did not enroll.

“We know that college changes lives and can be transformative. CDCR is committed to grade school-to-grad school opportunities for all incarcerated individuals, and I am thrilled that the return of Pell Grants helps makes that possible,” said Shannon Swain, superintendent of Correctional Education for CDCR.

Pell Grants were available to inmates long ago, but the program was put on hold. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 amended the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ban Pell Grants and other financial aid to people incarcerated in federal or state prisons.

Less than 1% of all Pell Grant funding went to inmates, but the ban caused college-in-prison programs that existed in the 1970s and 1980s to go almost entirely extinct by the late nineties, according to the AP report.

However, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Simplification Act, signed into law in December 2020, restored Pell Grant eligibility to inmates for the first time since 1994.

Red tape delayed the rollout, but last October the U.S. Department of Education published a final rule to implement the requirements that took effect July 1. The new federal law states that inmates can only access a Pell Grant if they enroll in a prison education program approved by the CDCR and the U.S. Department of Education. (Those listed above are approved in California.)

Financial aid for incarcerated community college students has been available through the California College Promise Grant, which covers tuition fees for low-income people. Not since 1994, however, have inmates had Pell Grant access for education beyond community college.

According to reporting by the Associated Press, more than 760,000 prison inmates across the United States are now eligible for Pell Grants. The expanded Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students will result in about 30,000 additional grant recipients receiving approximately $130 million in financial aid per year, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Education reported by the AP.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, the federal government spent over $26 billion on Pell Grants. The prisoner grants would amount to less than a 1% increase, according to the AP report.

Each semester, approximately 13,000 inmates in the California prison system are working toward two-year or four-year degrees, according to the CDCR. The figure represents about 13.5% of the entire incarcerated population statewide.

Universities offering bachelor's degrees in the CDCR system will work with inmates to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is required in order to access Pell Grants.