When Kimberley Pugh was released after a 13-year term in Habersham County’s Lee Arrendale State Prison, her college classes were the only thing that felt “normal” about the outside world.
“Everything around me was in complete chaos, but I had to focus on my reading, my writing, and make sure I had all my assignments done,” said Pugh, who was incarcerated from 2009 until 2022. Since then, she completed the bachelor’s degree she started inside Arrendale through the Chillon Project, a collaboration of the Center for Compassion, Integrity, and Secular Ethics at Life University that offers two degree programs to incarcerated women at the institution. Pugh credits the program with helping turn around her life and says now she hopes to return to the prison system as an educator to give back.
She’s not alone. In 2023 there were 48,060 people incarcerated in Georgia state prisons; they earned 38 bachelor’s degrees and 87 associate’s degrees. And if those people receiving degrees represent a small percentage of the state’s incarcerated population, they may have disproportionately high chance of avoiding recidivism: Incarcerated people who participate in prison education programs like the Chillon Project are 43% less likely to be reincarcerated than those who don’t, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the past decade, Morehouse College and Georgia State began to offer courses for incarcerated students. But now, each school’s prison education initiatives are headed in different directions.
Morehouse announced last month plans to expand its Higher Education in Prisons Initiative, which provides college classes to incarcerated men in two Georgia state prisons, thanks to a $1.6 million federal grant. But Morehouse’s expansion will be somewhat offset by the Georgia State University Prison Education Project, which quietly announced that it won’t accept any new students due to budget limitations. Currently enrolled students will be able to finish their degrees.
The opposing announcements show the difficulty in expanding efforts to give incarcerated people educational opportunities. Even with bipartisan support and evidence showing the tangible benefits of prison education programs, these initiatives often struggle to find the funding to operate.
“If you have a college degree, that’s going to really help your reentry into society, which is to everybody’s advantage … because they’re going to stay out of prison and get a job and pay tax revenue rather than being a drain on the system,” said Peter Lindsay, a philosophy and political science professor who co-founded Georgia State’s program in 2016.
In a statement to Capital B Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Corrections said it is dedicated to the success of all incarcerated students and is accepting applications for any college or university that is interested in becoming a prison education partner.
A federal grant fuels growth at Morehouse
Morehouse’s funding boost for its Higher Education in Prisons Initiative is set to grow to eight classes across three prisons from two classes in two. That, administrators conservatively estimate, will serve as many as 200 incarcerated people a year.
In previous years, the program’s annual operating budget was $60,000, primarily staffed by volunteering professors who would finish their work day on campus and then head to the prison to teach a night class.
“Up until this current grant, Morehouse was having to do this out of our own operating dollars,” said college President David Thomas, who said he hopes the grant will inspire others to contribute. Jann Adams, lead director of the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership, where the program is housed, said her short-term goal is to allow participants to continue their studies, possibly even earning Morehouse degrees after their release.
Currently, the program offers humanities classes to men and women incarcerated at the Georgia Department of Corrections’ Metro Reentry Facility in DeKalb County and Burruss Correctional Training Center in Monroe County. The expansion will see the program also serve the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ FCI Atlanta Penitentiary this fall.
GSU faces challenges from the State House and Washington
Meanwhile, Georgia State’s challenges stem from budget cuts implemented by the Georgia General Assembly along with changes to the federal Pell Grant financial aid program. Before 2023, Georgia State applied for Pell Grant funding for incarcerated students through the Second Chance Pell Experiment, since incarcerated people were ineligible for the aid through normal channels.
However, last year the U.S. Department of Education changed its rules to make incarcerated people eligible for Pell Grants, a change that brought a host of new requirements that prison education programs have to comply with in order for their students to be eligible.
Georgia State officials said that compliance with these new regulations present a financial burden that the university cannot take on. Last year, the university’s operating budget shrunk by $24.4 million.
Lindsay, who will continue teaching incarcerated students in non-degree getting programs, is hopeful this is only a hiccup in the program’s ability to offer degrees to incarcerated students.
“I’m actually somewhat optimistic that we can figure out a way to apply for the Pell Grants,” he said.
