Four States to Be Selected for Effort to Improve Education, Employment Post-Incarceration
A nonprofit plans to ask four states to participate in a $19.5 million initiative aimed at transforming how people transition from prison to the workforce.
The Fair Chance to Advance initiative, led by the national nonprofit Jobs for the Future with support from Ascendium Education Group, hopes to provide funding and support over four years to help states expand access to postsecondary education in prison and strengthen connections to employment after release.
The new initiative comes as state prison systems across the country continue to launch and expand education and work training programs. With the restoration and expansion of federal Pell Grant eligibility to incarcerated students in July 2023, the U.S. Department of Education estimated then that 760,000 people were newly eligible for federal financial aid — fueling interest in prison education efforts.
