Tertiary education in American prisons was close to reaching an end after funding was severely cut by the Clinton Administration. Prison educators were forced to regroup and lobby for renewed commitment to prisoners’ possibilities. In 2007, after President George W. Bush was reelected, he signed the Second Chance Act, which granted prisons funding for various reentry programs.[1] Now the federal government became more involved in prison reform than ever before. The Obama Administration has built upon Bush’s foundation by reinstating funding through the Second Chance Pell Pilot program in 2016. Successive recent acts affirming tertiary education possibilities in American prisons have stimulated broad discussion of how the federal government should approach rehabilitation.
President Bush’s 2007 speech advocating the Second Chance Act showed optimism that the bill would transform incarceration through reentry programs. Bush believed this “country was built on the belief that each human being has limitless potential and worth.”[2] In the criminal justice system, inmates’ rights are restricted within correctional confinement. Convicts do not have much to do but eat, sleep, and take orders from correctional officers. Bush noted, however, that “[o]ur government has a responsibility to help prisoners to return as contributing members of their community.”[3] Less clear was how Bush thought the federal government could foster this end.
The Second Chance Act of 2007 formalized prison reentry initiatives.[4] Grassroots activism including heretofore pro bono tertiary education programs now might receive federal funding. The act also ensured that vocational services, job placement, and community organizations might receive federal support for incarceration-related work. This approach differed from previous reformism because federal assistance stretches from the bureaucracy down rather than from those directly involved with offenders up.
Correctional education legislation has continued to develop since the second Bush left office. President Obama, still more than Bush, has deemed remediation of mass incarceration necessary to the nation. In his commitment to reforming the criminal justice system, Obama pushed forward the Second Chance Pilot program to provide funding for prison education programs, allowing offenders at a few experimental sites to apply for grants for college-level work if they meet guidelines decided by the prison and federal government.[5] Obama believes that prisoners should have the opportunity for education regardless of their records—that prisoners are no different from free men when it comes to education. Correctional education thus continues to be a force to provide incarcerated persons with resources and training toward personal development and economic opportunity. Most prisoners who are allowed to participate in educational programs have sentences that can be completed rather than life sentences, so experience benefits communicable to their communities.
The limitations of both of the Second Chance Act and Second Chance Pell Pilot program involve the categories of offenders who can participate and the overall trajectory of the programs offered. Restrictions and setbacks remain. For example, these programs target only prisoners eligible for release. Those with life sentences or violent offenders with maximum sentences are unable to participate.[6] Discrimination among potential participants assumes that prisoners with education might still be dangerous and that there are certain individuals who cannot be reformed. Consequently, prison education in America remains severely constrained despite the obvious benefits of broader accessibility.