By: Julie Johnson, Anthony Petty, and James Carpenter
Making education and training more accessible to key populations, particularly those who have not broadly been well-served by institutions of higher education, is of growing importance to our country and national economy.
One such population is adult learners who are or have been incarcerated. There are currently more than two million potential adult learners incarcerated in federal and state prisons and county or local jails. While educational and training programs exist at individual jails or specific prisons, there is no set standard, meaning one facility may have robust offerings, while another has extremely limited or no offerings. As a result, potential learners can go years and even decades without any way to gain sufficient skills or credentials for employment upon their release. Moreover, individuals may be moved from one facility to another making their education and training options unstable.
Upon release, many individuals are eager to contribute back to society and their families by earning a living wage and being a productive member of their community. However, they often find limited opportunities for such employment without education or workforce credentials. Overcoming the stigma of past mistakes and getting prospective employers to view individuals who have been incarcerated as a job candidate in need of a chance rather than a person with a criminal record, is not always easy.
There has been growing attention and investment in recent years toward improving access to education and training options and the quality of such options. Some examples include restoring Pell access to learners in prison, the Rising Scholars Network in California, and initiatives and reports from organizations such as Education Trust, The Campaign for College Opportunity, Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Vera Institute of Justice. Yet, much work remains to be done.
We would like to share the experience of education in prison, or lack thereof, for two of us, Anthony and James, who were each sentenced to life in prison as teenagers and recently released at ages 46 and 42. We offer our experience to make the case for much-needed improved educational and training offerings in prisons and jails, particularly in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which incarcerates more than 150,000 potential adult learners, and was where we were located for the majority of our time in prison.
Education in the Federal Bureau of Prisons
When we each entered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), we were required to pursue our GED and achieve 200 hours of classroom instruction. We were incentivized to get a GED, as we would get paid more for our work in the BOP if we had it. We both did this and received a GED when Anthony was 28 and James was 23. Accomplishing this felt very good and we were proud of our ability to get this credential in just a few months’ time.
Unfortunately, once GED classes were completed, educational offerings quickly narrowed. In 1994, Congress passed a bill that prohibited people in prison from accessing the federal Pell grant. By the time we entered the BOP at the end of 2001 (after DC closed its prison and moved people into the BOP), we saw trade and education programs at our facilities start to go away. Anthony was initially sent to the federal penitentiary in Lee, Virginia and James was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, though we were each moved multiple times. Maximum security prisons, such as ours, often have significantly fewer educational options than other carceral facilities, as they house those with lengthy sentences and greater security needs.
All that remained for educational programs were credit-bearing correspondence courses from an accredited distance education school and non-credit vocational correspondence courses from an unaccredited school. However, both these options cost money and we were not in a position to pursue this.
There were plenty of “programming” options, many of which focused on behavior, life skills, and support. We each participated in the Challenge Program, the most strenuous of all programs. It required strict participation from 7 am to 3 pm, Mon-Fri for nine months. We both graduated.
We each deeply desired to improve ourselves. For James, this stemmed from the foundation his parents instilled in him long ago on the importance of education and his desire to contribute to his family despite his circumstances. For Anthony, he sought to learn all the things he didn’t know and be able to speak on a variety of topics.
As such, we each participated in as many programming and non-credit continuing education options that were available. This ranged from courses on personal growth, finance, and exercise to courses in history, music, and psychology. From this, Anthony accumulated nearly 1,200 hours of instruction time, which if it had been credit-bearing would have amounted to an associate’s degree, plus 20 credits towards a bachelor’s degree. In one instance, Anthony took a course in major appliance repair that was 300 instructional hours, but with no credit or market-based certificate at the end. James did a similar amount of programming. We knew these offerings did not count towards a credential or degree, yet this was all that was available.
We also read. A lot. Reading had an important effect on each of us. For James, most of the knowledge he gained came from reading non-fiction and biographies. Reading was a very important part of his life. Anthony specifically attributes reading to his personal transformation.
In addition, because we each had life sentences, we were often not able to access relevant training and skills courses that were available to those with shorter sentences. For instance, one instructor would not permit Anthony to sign up for a course on Microsoft in order to make more space for those with lesser sentences, even though he was eligible for parole within three years.
Education in the DC Jail
Everything changed for us when the District of Columbia, where we are both from, passed the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act in 2016. This legislation gave residents from Washington DC who were imprisoned prior to the age of 18 and who had already served 15 years of their sentence the opportunity to go before a judge for consideration of early release with time served.
In preparation for our court hearings, we were each transferred from the BOP to the local DC jail in 2019. Once we were at the DC jail, which typically is for people who are pre-trial or have shorter non-felony sentences, we finally had the opportunity for workforce training. We both enrolled in a C-Tech certification program, which taught how to install copper telecommunications cabling over six months. We completed ⅔ of the program before it was paused indefinitely due to the COVID pandemic.
In May 2020, James was released after 25 years. (See video of his release and related Twitter thread.) In December 2020, Anthony was released after 30 years. (See video of his release.) We quickly had to turn our attention to gaining skills and job-readiness, while also pursuing employment.
In our next blog, we will share our experience with training and education upon release, in which James embarks on an apprenticeship program and Anthony pursues a work-based-learning fellowship. We will share how we are thinking about work and learning going forward, and what we believe should be done to improve education in the federal BOP and prisons and jails across the country.
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Anthony Petty and James Carpenters are founding advisory council members and core team members of Neighbors for Justice, which strives to be good neighbors to those at the DC jail and beyond through advocacy, support, and awareness. Anthony recently received a job offer to become a Credible Messenger, a mentor for justice-involved youth, through the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. James is working as a carpenter’s apprentice on a construction project at The Wharf in DC. When he is not working or in class, he is finding ways to support opportunity youth, give back to his community, and grow his skills. Julie Johnson is founder of Neighbors for Justice and founder and principal of StrategyForward Advisors, a postsecondary education policy and strategy consultancy in Washington DC.
