Disrupting Mass Incarceration
Vera Institute of Justice
A campaign to reinstate Pell grants for students in prison
The Challenge
The vast majority of people in prison—more than 90 percent—will return home one day. Sixty-five percent of all new jobs require some postsecondary education. However, only 22 percent of people in state prison have had at least some postsecondary education. Currently, one in three Black men without a high school education or GED will end up incarcerated. Research shows that removing the federal ban on Pell grants for people in prison, a relic from the 1994 Crime Bill, would increase employment rates among formerly incarcerated students by 10 percent, on average. Research also shows that people who participate in postsecondary education programs while incarcerated are 48 percent less likely to recidivate upon release than those who do not.
Enter the Vera Institute of Justice and other advocates committed to expanding access to quality postsecondary education for incarcerated students and disrupting mass incarceration in the process.
The Solution
By 2016, Vera was already recognized as a technical assistance provider to a postsecondary education pilot project with 69 colleges in 28 states, but 1235 Strategies founder Leslie Kerns helped to expand this commitment into one also aimed at changing policy — and in so doing helped broaden Vera’s toolkit as a change agent.
Prior to starting 1235 Strategies, Leslie led an issue assessment that revealed an ambitious yet realistic pathway: remove the 26-year-old ban on Pell grants for incarcerated students in six-to-eight years. She then oversaw opinion research, developed an integrated strategy (i.e. press, digital media, grasstops organizing, state and federal advocacy), crafted messaging, conceived of narrative-shaping content (i.e., Investing in Futures), and launched Vera’s “Unlocking Potential” campaign.
After starting 1235 Strategies, Leslie stepped back into the effort as lead strategist, providing Vera strategic direction and operational guidance for two years. Like all successful campaigns, Unlocking Potential was a team effort, including robust lobbying, organizing, and media partners. Leslie’s job was to make sure those partners and strategies were integrated and implemented in a way that stayed ahead of, and responded to, the legislative state of play.
The Impact
In December 2020, the hard work of Vera and its many righteous partners paid off: Congress voted to lift the ban on federal Pell grants for people in prison, which was signed into law as part of Congress’ year-end omnibus appropriations bill.
We thought this win would take us six to eight years and we did it in four. But the real success is the estimated, long-term impact of this antiracist policy change: increased access to education for more than 450k incarcerated students, lower recidivism rates in communities across the country, and a $45.3 mil increase in the combined earnings of formerly incarcerated workers during the first year after release.