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Each fall, millions of students start heading to class at colleges and universities across the country, seeking to gain important credentials they can use to further their career or educational goals. This past April, New York State that includes a commitment to scaling up higher education programming in prisons to ensure that students in every state facility have a classroom ready for them.

The commitment comes after years of research and advocacy work to overcome legal, logistical, and financial hurdles.

One of the most important of these came last summer when Congress restored public funding through federal Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals after a nearly three-decade ban. The New York legislature followed suit, “turning on” the state Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funding for incarcerated students.

The and reach more students. College in prison is a smart investment for both reentry and community safety: college in prison has long been shown to expand career options and reduce a person’s likelihood of returning to prison after release. In fact, found that college-in-prison students in New York had a 66% lower risk of returning to prison.

Funding is just the beginning. Ensuring programs meet the changing needs of incarcerated students is the bigger challenge. For many, the pursuit of a college degree in prison can be interrupted by transfer to a different facility or release to the community prior to degree completion, and the challenges with picking up the pieces can mean students never see a diploma.

Charles Grosso was taking college classes while incarcerated in New York’s Green Haven Correctional Facility in the early 1990s. He had earned 48 credits—almost halfway to a bachelor’s degree—when Pell Grants were cut, and classes stopped.

Determined to finish his degree, he was transferred to a correctional facility that had a small, private college program. Only then did he learn that, because of a lack of transfer agreements between his prior education provider and his current one, his credits weren’t transferrable. He would have to start over. Though he ended up earning 99 credits by his release—more than three-quarters of a degree—it was not enough.

Even before public funding was restored to college-in-prison programs, state higher education stakeholders—including our teams at the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (CUNY ISLG) and SUNY’s Office of Higher Education in Prison (OHEP)—have been working to make sure students like Charles don’t see their hard work go to waste.

In 2017, CUNY ISLG partnered with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York Governor’s Office to invest $7.3M in creating the in New York. CIP worked with education providers across the state to expand access to college-in-prison programs. The five-year initiative supported seven education providers in offering 14 different degree programs across 17 facilities across New York. In all, 931 students were served through CIP by 2022.

CIP wasn’t just designed to provide classes. It also promoted program quality, alignment, transfer, and academic reentry across its programs. SUNY OHEP and the Institute for Justice and Opportunity at CUNY’s John Jay College were both funded to conduct such work jointly as CIP’s Education and Reentry Coordinators.

At the outset of CIP, the Education and Reentry Coordinators assessed that in addition to issues with , , students were experiencing many challenges with SUNY OHEP found that transfers often interrupted CIP degree progress, as illustrated by Charles’ story; the new facilities did not always have college programs, and even when they did, the programs did not always have available space or the needed courses. A found that over the course of the initiative, a total of 12% CIP students left programs due to transfer challenges.

Since CIP, both SUNY and CUNY are focused on creating systems that facilitate student success, making student data accessible to expedite the transfer process. As of Spring 2024, 37 of the 44 state prisons in New York have college programs and 25 are SUNY/CUNY programs with the same credit-transfer agreements that exist outside of prison. SUNY campuses currently serve 1,000 students annually—making SUNY the largest prison education provider in the state. CUNY has an additional two campuses working in one state prison, and a robust reentry program, College Initiative, that supports returning CIP students looking to attend colleges in New York City.

With public funding allotted for expansion, it’s clear that New York—and any state seeking to create a meaningful college program in prison—must take a coordinated approach, with communication between education providers, corrections, and reentry services. It’s not simply about providing classes. It’s about reducing administrative barriers so incarcerated students can maintain momentum despite transfers, as well as feel supported after release so they can continue on their journeys to success and stability. We not only have the opportunity, but the responsibility, to give students like Charles the opportunity to finish what he started.

At 70, Charles is now enrolling this Fall at SUNY Empire State University. “Our credits earned are not just proof of our academic success, but a demonstration of how we have navigated the complexities of prison and the socioemotional growth we achieved,” he said. “Moving forward, I hope everyone I left behind the wall can come out with a degree or a clear path towards one.”