Prof. Cantora: 'Many Benefits' to Expanding Access to Higher Education in Prison
August 4, 2021
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Writing in The Conversation, Andrea Cantora, associate professor in The University of Baltimore's School of Criminal Justice, says the University's Second Chance College Program is among several efforts of its kind across the country to show measurable progress for its students, in terms of employment, reduction in percentage of re-offending, etc.
The article comes as the U.S. Department of Education has announced that it is expanding the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative. The department is in the process of determining the effectiveness of the Second Chance model, which includes Pell Grants for incarcerated persons who seek a college degree. Congress lifted a federal ban on Pell Grants to in 2020, but the official end of the ban doesn’t come until 2023.
"When the Obama administration launched the Second Chance Pell program in 2016, the idea was to provide incarcerated people the chance to get a college education despite a longstanding congressional ban on Pell Grants for people serving time," Prof. Cantora writes.
"As someone who studies correctional education and prisoner reentry, I see this expanded access to higher education in prison as something that will bring many benefits to not only the incarcerated individuals who get an education but to society as well."
Prof. Cantora cites statistics that show a drop in rates of re-offending among Second Chance participants, as well as increased employability.
"If re-offense rates remain low as Second Chance Pell expands, states would likely begin to spend less taxpayer money on prison costs," she writes.
Read the article in The Conversation.
Learn more about Prof. Cantora and UBalt's Second Chance College Program.