A Push to Lift a Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/opinion/pell-grants-prisoners.html

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To the Editor:

The renewed bipartisan push to lift a ban on Pell Grants for people in prison (news article, Feb. 16) is a common-sense move worthy of praise.

It’s clear that the ban on Pell Grants is not working. More than 90 percent of people who are in prison will eventually be released. Despite this, only 22 percent of people in state prison have had some form of postsecondary education, a virtual requirement for new job applicants.

Expanding access to postsecondary education and training to people while incarcerated will better equip them to find jobs that lead to other education and economic opportunities upon their release. In turn, it will also help improve their and their family’s future, as well as help them avoid returning to crime.

Lifting the ban would also help create safer communities and cut costs. In fact, a study by the RAND Corporation estimates that every dollar invested in correction education yields $4 to $5 in savings from a reduction in recidivism rates.

At a time when our leaders in Washington struggle to agree on virtually anything, lifting the ban on Pell Grants is a policy that both parties can and should support.

FRED PATRICK, NEW YORK

The writer is director of the Center on Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice.