Benefits

Six Key Sectors in Virginia: What’s in it for you?

Higher education in prison is a bipartisan proposition, with benefits for a variety of sectors and constituencies. Consider how postsecondary education in prison delivers for six key segments of the Commonwealth.

    • Aligns with mission orientation for opportunity, access, and inclusion 

    • Accesses federal funding to enroll more students with diverse life experiences 

    • Provides rewarding teaching/learning experiences and ideas for research 

    • Adds to enrollment of FirstGen, underrepresented, and lower income students 

    • Increases overall enrollment and FTE’s 

    • Expands partnerships in workforce development 

    • Increases visibility in the public sphere and wins earned media 

    • Expands avenues for external funding 

    • Graduates new loyal and dedicated alumni 

    • Demonstrates leadership in the field of higher education 

    • Contributes to the rehabilitation mission of corrections 

    • Makes prisons safer for staff and residents by reducing violent infractions 

    • Reduces recidivism progressively with each academic degree achieved 

    • Supports reentry success by boosting employability and wages 

    • Influences prison culture by elevating critical thinking and emotional intelligence 

    • Increases motivation for college preparatory education, e.g., Adult Basic Education, GED 

    • Addresses gaps in digital literacy to promote successful returns to work and home 

    • Generates opportunities for work-based learning and apprenticeships 

    • Demonstrates leadership in the field of corrections 

    • Offers a sense of purpose and direction during incarceration

    • Contributes to self-esteem and supports personal transformation

    • Reduces reincarceration by promoting reentry success

    • Increases employability and wages with marketable skills and expertise

    • Contributes to potential “good time” and parole considerations

    • Provides access to collegiate educational and career advising

    • Confers credentials and degrees that hold value in outside social comparison

    • Influences children’s trajectories by modeling educational achievement

    • Supports preservation of family connections by increasing points of pride

    • Builds community and supportive networks among incarcerated students

    • Builds intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and persistence

    • Restores identity from inmate to student, scholar, and civic contributor

    • Addresses educational deficits sustained because of the school-to-prison pipeline

    • Offers a bipartisan approach that fosters public safety, improves economic outcomes, and garners public support

    • Reduces public costs of incarceration by boosting reentry success and lower recidivism

    • Advances public safety goals

    • Responds to priorities and values of multiple constituencies; delivers multiple wins

    • Demonstrates leadership in education, economics, and justice reform spaces

    • Addresses timely focus on alignment of higher education and labor market needs

    • Advances public-private discussions of Second Chance hiring and workforce development

    • Builds multi-disciplinary collaboration across agencies, both public and private

    • Positions Virginia as a leader in criminal justice innovation

    • Offers a proven implementation of restorative justice

    • Interrupts intergenerational cycles of poverty, poor educational attainment, and justice-system involvement when incarcerated parents role model higher education to children

    • Increases Virginia’s economic competitiveness by maximizing home-grown talent pipelines

    • Taps a large, underutilized talent pool of Virginians to remedy long term worker shortages

    • Delivers regional workforce benefits in addition to industry-specific talent solutions

    • Invites customization of higher educational programs to meet business talent needs

    • Reduces employer training costs when Pell-funded education builds timely capacity

    • Upskills employees proven to reduce turnover with their dedication, gratitude, and loyalty

    • Creates opportunities for work-based learning, internships, mentorships, pre-apprenticeships with highly motivated incarcerated and returning Virginians

    • Adds appeal to Second Chance hiring when candidates present with high-value expertise and skills

    • Invites review and reduction of licensing barriers for Virginians with records

    • Prioritizes a hopeful, restorative justice approach

    • Supports core faith values of redemption and restoration of right relationship

    • Encourages people to transform their lives to reach their full human potential

    • Parallel prison ministry values—increases caring interactions with incarcerated residents

    • Benefits incarcerated loved ones of families in the local and broader faith community

    • Demonstrates spiritual and civic leadership in the field of criminal legal system reform