Opportunities Lost

Post-secondary educational opportunities for incarcerated offenders have declined in recent years. The passage of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 marked the elimination of all state and federal inmates' eligibility for Pell entitlement grants, effective in the 1995-96 academic year. The present study serves as a re-evaluation of the state of PSCE programming within U.S. correctional systems. Two academic years have passed since the original evaluation conducted in 1995-96 (see Tewksbury & Taylor, 1996), allowing the opportunity to assess the intermediate consequences of the loss of Pell Grant funding for inmates. The present study assesses the degree to which the loss of Pell funding has affected PSCE opportunities for inmate-students and how correctional systems have adapted and changed as a result of the elimination of Pell Grant funding. Post-secondary educational opportunities for incarcerated offenders have declined in recent years. The passage of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 marked the elimination of all state and federal inmates' eligibility for Pell entitlement grants, effective in the 1995-96 academic year. The present study serves as a re-evaluation of the state of PSCE programming within U.S. correctional systems. Two academic years have passed since the original evaluation conducted in 1995-96 (see Tewksbury & Taylor, 1996), allowing the opportunity to assess the intermediate consequences of the loss of Pell Grant funding for inmates. The present study assesses the degree to which the loss of Pell funding has affected PSCE opportunities for inmate-students and how correctional systems have adapted and changed as a result of the elimination of Pell Grant funding.