Following the bipartisan reinstatement of Pell Grant access to incarcerated people which was signed into law in 2020 and went into effect this year, Illinois’ Back on the MAP campaign is pushing the state to restore Monetary Award Program (MAP) eligibility to people in prison by passing HB3740. The legislation sailed through the IL House and is waiting to be acted upon in the Senate.
Illinois lawmakers took MAP grant access away from people in Illinois prisons in 1987 as tough-on-crime legislation was gaining popularity. Congress later enacted a ban on federal Pell Grants in 1994, decimating college-in-prison everywhere across the country. That move was reversed in 2020 with a bipartisan coalition in legislation signed by President Trump. Pell restoration was followed by state level action across the country. Now, more than half of states have ended state level bans on financial aid for incarcerated students, sending a clear political endorsement of the value of college-in-prison, signaling to Illinois that it is past time to also restore MAP.
“As a former Correctional Officer, I saw firsthand the negative impact of cutting college courses from our facilities. We cannot be taken seriously when we claim to want to reduce recidivism rates if we close off educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals,” said Gregg Johnson, State Representative 72nd District who spent 32 years as an employee of the Illinois Department of Corrections. “Restoring MAP grant opportunities for these individuals plays a big part in both reducing recidivism and in putting individuals on a path to success after returning to society.”
Providing college opportunities in prison has been found to deliver strong employment outcomes, develop employer-demanded skills, make prisons safer, and strengthen pathways to successful reentry. These programs also hold the unique potential to improve students’ lives, help narrow racial and economic equity gaps in postsecondary attainment and workforce participation, strengthen local economies and communities, and disrupt cycles of incarceration. A study from the Yale Policy Lab found that participation in a college-in-prison program leads to a “large and significant reduction in recidivism rates” and that people with “higher levels of participation” in a college-in-prison program recidivate at lower levels. The recidivism rate for AA students fell to 8.7% while that for BA students fell to 3.1%. The recidivism rate in Illinois is roughly 43%.
In 2021, the Illinois legislature created a Task Force for Higher Education in Prison, which included practitioners of college-in-prison, community stakeholders, and directly impacted people from within and outside the state. The Task Force produced a report in 2022 with a series of recommendations for Illinois to better support college opportunities in prison. One of the key recommendations was the restoration of the MAP funding to incarcerated students. Representative Carol Ammons introduced House Bill 3740 in 2023 which removes the ban on Illinois need-based student aid for incarcerated people.
Gwen Troyer, Associate Director of the John Howard Association of Illinois (JHA), a correctional oversight organization, reports: “People in prison often report to JHA that they want the chance to participate in education, or if they have had the rare chance, that it is the very best, most rehabilitative thing that has happened for them.” Troyer continued, “The John Howard Association supports expanding education within our prisons recognizing that giving people access will improve environments inside as well as in home communities when this knowledge is shared. Providing restorative opportunity is a core value of our state and a smart investment.”
David Staples enrolled in Augustana’s degree program while he was incarcerated at East Moline Correctional Center, earning a BA in 2024. “Education gave me something to hold on to. It became the tool that helped me stay grounded, helped me see a future beyond the walls of prison. It’s not just about getting a degree or studying from books—it’s about having an opportunity to change yourself, to learn something that pushes you forward instead of pulling you back,” David remarked. Staples is now on his way to earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology.
While the cost of MAP to incarcerated students would be negligible (estimated at less than 0.1%) in relation to the state’s total MAP expenditures, MAP restoration would yield significant cost savings. A 2016 RAND study found that for every $1 a state invests in college-in-prison, it saves $4-5 five dollars in terms of incarceration costs.
Since the bans on MAP and Pell shuttered nearly all college programs in the 1980s and 1990s, only a few colleges and universities have offered degree opportunities inside Illinois prisons, using private funding. In 2022, Augustana College became the first college in Illinois to become a Second Chance Pell site and began to access Pell Grants, blended with private philanthropy. The Augustana Prison Education Program’s first in-prison commencement is scheduled for May 2025 with 5 students earning Bachelor’s degrees from Augustana College. Lewis University is also a Second Chance Pell site, operating in two prisons in the state.
Illinois has much to be proud of in its commitment to promoting high-quality affordable education, but this promise is unfulfilled as long as those behind bars are left behind. Black and Brown communities are hyper-policed, over-criminalized, and disproportionately imprisoned. Meaningful gains in racial equity must include closing racial opportunity gaps. While 45% of the general population has a college degree, this is true for less than 5% of those incarcerated, nationally. There are currently only eight prisons in Illinois where degree pathways are available. By comparison in New York, which has a similar-sized prison population to Illinois, more than 30 colleges offer degrees in nearly every prison in that state. In California, an associate degree is offered in every state prison, with a growing system of bachelor degree opportunities across the state. Ending the MAP ban will help close Illinois’s educational gap.
“College-in-prison is the most effective, simplest, and most affordable expansion of college opportunity in the entire landscape of higher education,” says Max Kenner, a national college-in-prison leader and Executive Director of the Bard Prison Initiative. “States across the country are investing in this intervention that reduces recidivism, increases public safety, and mitigates the worst impacts of mass incarceration. Illinois should be the next state to prioritize people and education over prisons and punishment.”
Retired Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) has also championed college-in-prison, working with Bard and Augustana’s “Back on the MAP” campaign to see higher education opportunities grow in Illinois prisons. He became a Distinguished Faculty Fellow for the Bard Prison Initiative in 2023, teaching courses in two prisons on the history of the civil rights movement, and calling the work “powerful and important.” Rush, in pushing for MAP restoration, noted: “lives are enriched, futures are enhanced.”
