Projects

Featured

  • Results from a National and Regional Landscape Scan of Higher Education in Prison

    The role of higher educational attainment or postsecondary education (PSE) in prisons is receiving increased interest at the federal and state levels. In particular, in July 2015, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a new Second Chance Pell Pilot Program that will make incarcerated individuals who otherwise meet Title IV eligibility requirements now eligible for Pell Grants to help pay for their PSE and training, particularly within the next five years. RAND, in partnership with RTI International, was awarded a grant by the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation to undertake a national and regional landscape scan of higher education in prison to inform Great Lakes’ strategic planning process. The Great Lakes funding region includes five study states: Arkansas, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The goal was to summarize key trends in higher education in prison, identify promising approaches or models that can help get more justice-involved adults into pathways of higher education attainment, and identify opportunities to help replicate or expand higher education opportunities within the Great Lakes funding region and nationally.

  • Evaluation of the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education

    RAND is conducting an evaluation of a three-state demonstration project designed to provide postsecondary education to incarcerated individuals in New Jersey, Michigan, and North Carolina. This five-year initiative led by the Vera Institute of Justice is providing three states with incentive funding and technical assistance to expand access to higher education for people in prison and those recently released. The project seeks to demonstrate that access to postsecondary education, combined with supportive reentry services, can increase educational credentials, reduce recidivism, and increase employability and earnings.

  • National Study of Prison Closings and Alternative Strategies

    RAND is currently leading a National Institute of Justice study on the effect of prison closures and the fiscal challenges faced by state correctional systems. A series of journal articles on the results are being produced. The results of a 50-state survey of state correctional administrators is presented in the initial article, A National Picture of Prison Downsizing Strategies, Victims & Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice Volume 10, Issue 4, 2015.

  • Estimating the Eligibility of California’s Realignment Population for Medicaid under Health Care Reform

    The expansion of Medicaid to include childless adults under the Affordable Care Act offered an opportunity to expand health insurance coverage for ex-offenders. To inform planning at the state and county levels, RAND is conducting an analysis funded by The California Endowment to estimate the percentage of the different criminal justice populations in California that would be eligible for Medicaid and for the premium tax credits to purchase insurance in the marketplace.