Georgia Prison Education Program Shuttered
Georgia State University announced on March 21, 2024, that it was pulling the plug on its eight-year-old Prison Education Program (PEP), in which 60 prisoners at two state prisons and one federal lockup were working toward college associate degrees.
PEP alumni include nine men at Walker State Prison who earned associate degrees in May 2023, GSU’s first class to graduate behind bars. Three more incarcerated students graduated in December 2023 at Phillips State Prison. Another 19 prisoners at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta enrolled in PEP classes in September 2023.
The university claims to have a “teachout plan” to help all 60 remaining prisoner students finish their degrees, potentially involving a takeover of the program by the University of West Georgia. Details remain unclear, however.
Ironically, it was expansion of Pell Grant availability to all incarcerated students nationwide that GSU blamed for the shutdown. Offering federal financial aid for low-income students, Pell Grants became available to prisoners in July 2023 after a ban lasting nearly 30 years, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, May 2022, p.44.] GSU said that the “complex requirements” and “administrative demands” of obtaining Pell Grant approvals were too burdensome.
But Ruth Delaney, who provides technical assistance for the nonprofit Vera Institute to prison education programs, was disappointed by the shutdown, noting that “many of the services, reporting and processes that the Pell Grant students require are standard practices that the university already has in place to serve its non-incarcerated students.”
The state’s largest university, GSU faces budget shortfalls, with a $24.4 million cut in fiscal year 2024 and another anticipated next year. The university estimated that PEP cost around $180,000 annually on top of funds raised though a nonprofit arm to cover those costs.
Source: Georgia Recorder