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Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, a membership and scholarship organization for community college students, has extended its participation criteria to students who are incarcerated or serving probation for criminal convictions. Those criteria previously would have been disqualifying.
“It’s our desire -- our mission -- to be part of the solution to a set of very complex social problems,” Lynn Tincher-Ladner, the group's president and CEO, said in a written statement. “It’s our way of ‘unchecking the box’ -- saying to students that their mistakes shouldn’t follow them forever.”
The group cited an influential study by the Rand Corp., which found that incarcerated individuals who actively participate in higher education are far less likely to return to prison after their release. The Obama administration also referenced that study in its 2015 decision to open up federal Pell Grant aid for up to 12,000 incarcerated students as part of an experimental program. Community colleges, including Michigan's Jackson College, are among the 67 institutions that are participating in the so-called Second Chance Pell pilot.
“The goal is to open the door to opportunity to people who are starting over,” said Daniel Phelan, president of Jackson College and a member of PTK's Board of Directors, which voted last month to expand its membership.
