U.S. News Spotlights UB's Role in Second Chance Program for Incarcerated
October 18, 2016
Contact: Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore's new Second Chance Pell pilot program, in which inmates at the Jessup Correctional Institution are enrolled in credit-bearing course offered by UB faculty, is detailed in a U.S. News article. The article follows the formal unveiling of the program, which took place at the facility on Oct. 12.
"In June 2016, the university was chosen among 67 colleges and universities nationwide to participate in the Obama administration's $30 million Second Chance Pell Grant Experimental Sites Initiative. Under the program, approximately 12,000 of America's 2.2 million incarcerated will receive federal aid to pursue a higher education. Upon release, they will retain the Pell funding to finish their program.
"Since the university's Second Chance College Program began at Jessup this fall, its students have been working toward a bachelor's degree in community studies and civic engagement with a minor in entrepreneurship. To be eligible, prisoners had to have been enrolled in Jessup's preexisting Scholars Program, which offers noncredit liberal arts courses; had a high school diploma or GED; and submitted two letters of recommendation and one personal essay. Preference was given to those with a parole eligibility date within five years of the program's start. Program directors sent letters to 150 men at Jessup with information on how to apply. Over 100 of those men submitted an application, and 29 are enrolled in the program today."
Leading UB's Second Chance effort is Andrea Cantora, assistant professor in the University's College of Public Affairs and a long-time advocate for education as an effective way to reduce recidivism and bring incarcerated people back into society.
"In the Jessup library, several students spoke to commemorate the launch," the article states. "One student stressed to his classmates how much was at stake for them and for future students: 'If we fall, they fall. But if we succeed, they succeed.' In this unconventional college setting – shelves of library books under windows donned with iron rods – program director and University of Baltimore professor Andrea Cantora uttered a sentence unheard inside the prison walls before: 'Welcome to the University of Baltimore at Jessup Correctional Institution.'
Read the U.S. News article.
Learn more about the Second Chance program at UB, Prof. Cantora, and the University of Baltimore's School of Criminal Justice in the College of Public Affairs.