“It’s Useless, to Put it Politely”: Experiences with
Technology Among Incarcerated Students Receiving
Second Chance Pell at Four Institutions

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Description

The Second Chance Pell Experiment allows a select number of institutions of higher education to provide Pell Grants to eligible incarcerated students, circumventing the 1994 ban. To date, and because of prison constraints, much of what is known about the implementation and impact of the Experiment is drawn from the perspectives of non-incarcerated people. This research brief draws on focus groups conducted by the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison at the University of Utah with incarcerated students, alumni, and formerly incarcerated alumni of prison higher education programs. The larger project from
which these data are drawn, Exploring the Experiences of Participants in Second Chance Pell, is a mixed
methods research study examining the implementation and facilitation of the Second Chance
Pell Experiment.