MHC Receives $1.13 Million in Funding to Support Higher Education in Mississippi Prisons

Thanks to a $1.13 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Mississippi Humanities Council will significantly expand its support of humanities courses in Mississippi prisons. The Council supported 32 courses at five prisons in 2022 with funding from the Mellon Foundation. This new grant will allow the Council to underwrite several more courses over the next three years, expand its prison book club program, as well as continue its work to build a statewide consortium for higher education in prison.

The Mellon Foundation grant will support prison education programs at nine Mississippi prison facilities in 2023, taught by Hinds Community College, Northeast Mississippi Community College, Mississippi Delta Community College, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Southwest Mississippi Community College, Jones College and Mississippi Valley State University, as part of the Mississippi Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (MCHEP). With leadership from the Council, the Mississippi Community College Board (MCCB), the Mississippi Institutions for Higher Learning (IHL) and the Woodward Hines Education Foundation (WHEF) are working with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and leaders of workforce and reentry nonprofits to build a self-sustaining entity dedicated to expanding and promoting quality postsecondary education opportunities for students in prison. This new grant from the Mellon Foundation provides the resources needed to fully implement the Mississippi consortium.

“Given that two of our core values are to recognize the value of all people and to increase educational equity, we actively include incarcerated students in our efforts,” WHEF President James McHale wrote in a letter of support for MHC’s grant. McHale added, “We are eager to lend our expertise through MCHEP to programs statewide as Pell grants become more widely available to incarcerated students.”

The MHC also received a grant in 2021 from the Laughing Gull Foundation to work with its higher education in prison (HEP) partners to lay the foundation for MCHEP The two-year grant funded a year of planning and a year of implementation.

“This second grant from the Mellon Foundation is a testament to the power of the growing network of institutions and organizations serving incarcerated students. I am proud the Mississippi Humanities Council has been the catalyst for this important collaboration,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, the Council’s executive director.

“Research shows us that higher education prison programs provide transformational opportunities for incarcerated men and women to gain self-worth and soft skills while earning college credit,” said Dr. Casey Prestwood, associate commissioner for academic and student affairs at Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.

Incarcerated adults enrolled in education programs are 43 percent less likely to recidivate, according to data compiled by the Rand Corporation. Those rates improve to 48 percent for post-secondary programs. Justice-impacted individuals who earn an associate degree have only 14 percent recidivism, and that rate falls to 5.6 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, for every dollar spent on prison education, taxpayers can expect a return of $5 as justice-impacted individuals become stable, positive forces in their families and communities.

Academic support programs, including peer training, library improvements and college and career counseling to prepare students to reenter society, are also included in the Mellon Foundation grant, as well as workshops to prepare schools and prisons for Pell Grant restoration for incarcerated students. Additional workshops will address topics like how to offer incarcerated students other kinds of financial aid support, including institution-level scholarships and grants.

The consortium will begin its search next week for a director to fully implement and lead MCHEP’s efforts to establish a culture of collaboration and cooperation.

“What we are building in Mississippi can be a model for the rest of country. By creating a consortium that brings together community colleges, four-year universities, and organizations focused on re-entry, we have the opportunity to create a sustainable system of higher education in prisons that will transform lives and improve the quality of life for all Mississippians,” said Dr. Rockoff.