PRESIDENT OBAMA MAKING GOOD ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM: PELL GRANTS FOR PRISONERS

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The plan, set to be unveiled in July 2015 by the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General, would allow potentially thousands of inmates in the U.S. to gain access to Pell grants, the main form of federal aid for low-income college students. The grants cover up to $5,775 a year in tuition, fees, books and other education-related expenses.

Prisoners received $34 million in Pell Grants in 1993, according to figures the Department of Education provided to Congress at the time. But a year later, Congress prohibited state and federal prison inmates from getting Pell grants as part of broad anticrime legislation, leading to a sharp drop in the number of in-prison college programs. Supporters of the ban contended federal aid should only go to law-abiding citizens.

~WSJ

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/pell-grants-to-be-restored-for-prisoners-1438029241