Prison education programs have been few and far within the United States, but Penn State began offering accredited courses to incarcerated individuals within Pennsylvania.

Although Penn State has offered courses to incarcerated individuals in the past, the Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI) is taking new steps to offer prisoners the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree. These new courses offer prisoners the opportunity to earn a degree before re-entering society and look for potential jobs.

Initially founded in 2015, RJI has grown immensely. While prison education is one of its main facets, RJI focuses on another main initiatives to educate those who were or are incarcerated with their rising scholars: reintegration initiatives.

The rising scholars program creates a pathway for those who have been released from prison and are looking to apply to college as prison education works toward giving those incarcerated educational classes to prepare them for life outside of prison. Once those individuals are released, RJI’s reintegration initiative helps those released adapt to life outside of prison and continue their educational journey.

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In the past, Penn State only offered non-credited classes to those imprisoned, but its new education program offers incarcerated individuals the opportunity to earn bachelor’s degrees from Penn State courses and teachers.

“We had to do a lot of cold calling to prisons in the beginning to get our program integrated, but over the past nine years, it’s grown so much,” RJI Prison Education Program Manager Liana Cole said. “We’re able to offer a lot more classes now and find our initiative constantly growing.”

It was a slow start for RJI as prison reform has become a hot topic for many. With the tough-on-crime policies created in the late 1990s, prison education funds were reduced, and incarcerated individuals were barred from receiving Pell Grants. Throughout the early 2000s and 2010s, prison advocates began sharing the importance of prison education to reduce recidivism rates and help formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society.

The recent reversal of Pell Grant bans to incarcerated persons has helped initiatives, such as RJI, fund educational courses within prisons across the United States.

Aside from reducing recidivism rates, Cole said prisoners are entitled to receive education.

“We believe education is a human right and incarcerated individuals shouldn’t be excused from that,” Cole said. “We still make them go through an application process and have the opportunity to receive federal funding through Pell Grants and financial aid.”

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Cole has seen the impact of education within prisons since she began as a creative writing teacher.

“They’re hungry to learn. It’s not really hard to get incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals involved in our courses because they’re ready to learn,” Cole said. “They’re constantly giving us feedback as to the courses and degrees they want, and it’s something we’ve been working on.”

The new bachelor’s degree program is offering a small group of students the opportunity to work toward a degree in rehabilitation and human services. Cole stated that many students wanted a degree that allowed them to give back to those incarcerated and help those who are trying to further their education.

With only 12 openings, the application process is thorough and spots go quickly.

“I think once we are able to get more funding and our students can receive more aid, then we’d be able to take on more students. There’s just a lot of barriers right now,” Cole said.

As of now, prisoners are only able to receive funding from the federal government due to Pennsylvania law. The Pennsylvania Department of Education requires those receiving funding to be of “good moral character” and those imprisoned or formerly imprisoned do not meet the state’s morality clause.

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This makes it harder for educational programs to take place since most of the funding must come from the government. However, the method comes with strings attached. Just like those who apply for financial aid from the government, the Pell Grant has a cap, meaning each person can only receive a certain amount of funding.

As a result, the RJI relies on private donations and research to promote its programs and students.

“We want to show that programs like this do help reduce recidivism rates and are better for the community as a whole,” Cole said.

Within Pennsylvania, Penn State has joined the Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education in Prisons (PA-CHEP), which a collection of colleges and universities across the state working toward using their tools and resources to educate those incarcerated.

“I think there’s room for all of us. These programs are so different and meet different types of needs and it’s wonderful to see how we can support each other throughout this work,” Cole said.

Penn State has also joined the Big Ten Consortium for Higher Education in Prisons to partner with other schools within the conference to promote prison reform and education. Schools such as Ohio State, Northwestern, Illinois, and Iowa have each created their own prison education projects in which the university offers courses to incarcerated individuals in the area.

“The desire and need is there from the students. It’s just on us to make it possible,” Cole said. “We’re starting small with only 12 students and then will take on another cohort every other year and hopefully scale up, but it depends on how much support we have.”

However, it has proven to be a challenge for a large school like Penn State to manage.

“Unlike smaller schools who are also doing these programs, like Villanova, there are so many more things that are required of a big school that are not required at private schools who have more flexibility,” Cole said.

Aside from money, Cole said it has been fairly easy to find teachers eager and willing to be a part of the program.

“Very often teachers come to us because teachers want to teach in this program,” Cole said. “They can often teach and it goes towards their college requirements, but RJI is also looking to recruit teachers if we find them fit for a specific part of our program.”

As for the future of funding for programs like RJI, PA-CHEP is working toward removing the morality clause that bars incarcerated individuals from receiving state-wide funding.

“Deeming incarcerated individuals as not having ‘good moral character’ goes against the ideologies behind restoration and rehabilitation within the education programs,” Cole said. “If these programs are going to continue to grow and thrive, then that is something that is going to have to change.”

Nonetheless, Cole is hopeful for the future and eager to see the program thrive in the upcoming years.

“We aren’t the first and hope to not be the last,” she said. “I’d like to see how we can continue to grow this program to have more majors and courses added.”