College Is Undergoing a Revolution. It’s Happening Behind Bars - Commentary

Max Kenner, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College (NY), writes:  A change taking place right now has the potential to do more good within U.S. prisons than any policy in a generation — good that will extend far beyond the realm of criminal justice. With a 2020 law finally taking full effect, people who are incarcerated can for the first time in decades get Pell Grants, the federal tuition aid for low-income students. The grants are small, but they are critical to rebuilding one of the most important tools we have to reduce crime and mitigate the harms of mass incarceration: college education. Those of us who have been on the front lines pressing for this change now face a new challenge. We spent 26 years advocating so that what’s known as college-in-prison could be. Now is the time to figure out what it should be.