The Dream Re-Imagined: Historically Black Colleges and Universities Releasing Purpose to Prisoners (A Case Study on the Second Chance Pell Grant Program at Wiley College, Marshall Texas)

Abstract

Approximately two million men and women are currently incarcerated in the Prison Industrial Complex in the United States of America. Ninety percent of these inmates will eventually be released from prison. This qualitative study focused on the Second Chance Pell Grant program at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and how the program made possible an academic experience that provided a purposeful, often life- changing alternative to the otherwise non-productive routine of prison life. The study employed a case study approach to examine how one Historically Black College and University, Wiley College, used the Second Chance Pell Grant program. With an unparalleled “leap of faith,” its visionary administration applied for and was awarded a grant in 2015, and with it proceeded to implement the Second Chance Pell Grant program at the College. Their imagined goal of providing undergraduate degrees to incarcerated persons became a reality. As a case study, the SCPG program at Wiley College formed a foundational profile of ethical leadership, transformational directives, and creative management within higher education and may serve as a template for more HBCU’s and other institutions of higher learning that are aspiring to do similar work. Ultimately, the current work will encourage more engagement of inmates who are ethnically diverse as it develops and implements face-to- face and online study. The inmates in turn will be able to pursue and acquire associate’s and bachelor’s degrees through utilizing this grant. While the findings of this study were limited to the group of African American and White students recruited for study, the program has constructive implications for today’s multiracial society in general. It is known that education obtained in prison can help reduce recidivism and assist former prisoners in becoming productive citizens as well as act as a catalyst for bringing communities together. Exploring the achievements of one HBCU in the area of education and prison reformation as a case study provided insight that other HBCU’s might apply in their own efforts to design, develop, and deploy prison educational initiatives. Since the fall of 2017, the program has graduated 27 men with Associates and Bachelor degrees in three academic programs. Wiley College is one of four HBCU’s in the country actively offering accredited degrees to the nontraditional student population of incarcerated individuals, and more programs are being added (note that more HBCU’s will be approved for the 2023-2024 school year). The Second Chance Pell Grant program at Wiley College is a catalyst for change and presently serves three prisons in Louisiana with offerings of opportunity for a growing number of inmates to avail and benefit from the school’s Prison Educational Initiative.Keywords: Second Chance Pell Grant Program, Prison Education Initiatives, Recidivism, Mass Incarceration and Prison Industrial Complex, Wiley College Second Chance Pell Grant, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Case Study Theory