Long Wait List for Texas’ Only College-Level Re-Entry Class for Prisoners
As of November 26, 2024, more than 250 Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisoners were on the wait list for a re-entry class offered at nine state prisons near Huntsville by Lee Community College in Baytown.
The six-week course is popular not only among prisoners enrolled in the college’s degree program. Re-entry specialists like former prisoner Calvin Green lead classes through frank discussions about coping with the mental health effects of incarceration, as well as offering help with goal-setting and finding employment.
A study published in 2015 by Criminal Justice Policy Review (CJPR) reported that Minnesota prisoners on work-release between 2007 and 2010 avoided re-incarceration that would have cost the state $700 each on average—nearly $1.25 million for all 3,570 participants. See: An Outcome Evaluation of a Prison Work Release Program: Estimating Its Effects on Recidivism, Employment, and Cost Avoidance, CJPR (Jan. 2015).
Local public school districts that offer GED programs to prisoners can also help with re-entry while colleges can take advantage of federal Pell Grant funding. This is crucial in a state like Texas, whose lawmakers set aside a puny $500,000 in 2019 for programming to help some 40,000 TDCJ prisoners released every year. Utilizing the additional funds, Lee College is trying to develop a pilot program to offer re-entry program podcasts to TDCJ prisoners on their tablets.
Additional source: Texas Tribune
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