DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s prison inmates are now allowed to apply for college financial aid through a state program that had long excluded them but was changed under the state’s 2020 budget.
Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program, or TIP, is a state-funded program that reimburses tuition expenses for Medicaid-eligible students at participating public and private institutions.
Terrell Blount, a program associate with the Vera Institute of Justice, recently told the Detroit Free Press that expanding the program’s eligibility to inmates is a “big win” for Michigan, where college subsidy opportunities for prisoners are limited.
He added Michigan is now among 18 states that do not prevent incarcerated students from receiving the state’s financial aid.
The Michigan Department of Treasury will administer the $64.3 million allotted to TIP from the 2020 budget.
“It makes a statement saying that ... education changes lives. It reduces recidivism,” said Blount, who worked with state agency officials and policymakers to change TIP’s eligibility. “Everyone agrees people should be held accountable for what they’ve done or committed, but that doesn’t mean that they should be deprived and have their educational opportunity taken away from them.”
An early estimate shows that less than three percent of inmates will be eligible for the program because of age restrictions, Blount noted.
The program requires that students apply before Aug. 31 of the school year in which they graduate from high school or earn their GED certificate. Applicants must graduate or get their GED before age 20, and their eligibility will end six years later.
There are three Michigan schools — Delta College, Jackson College and Mott Community College — offering courses to incarcerated students through the federal Second Chance Pell pilot, which allows 67 schools nationwide to experiment in awarding Pell grants to students in prison.
A provision of the 1994 federal crime bill barred inmates from receiving Pell grants, and advocates for prison education are pushing Congress to overturn that ban.
Altogether, a little more than 700 inmates within the Michigan Department of Corrections are enrolled in post-secondary education classes.
- Posted October 25, 2019
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
State allows inmates to seek college financial aid
headlines Macomb
- Lawyer publishes first of three children’s books
- US government agrees to $138.7M settlement over FBI's botching of Larry Nassar assault allegations
- Owner of twice-sunken Lake Michigan barge pleads guilty to felony
- Woman charged with murder in crash that killed young brother and sister at birthday party
- MDHHS to issue maternal health quality payments to hospitals
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case