Pell Grants and Prisoners: A Comprehensive Timeline (1965-2025)

Note: This timeline demonstrates how suppressing educational opportunities for the incarcerated has long been a bipartisan issue, with Democrats often leading or enthusiastically supporting "tough on crime" measures that disproportionately harmed communities of color. The restoration of Pell Grants for prisoners in 2023 represents a significant reversal of policies that contributed to mass incarceration and limited rehabilitation opportunities for nearly three decades.

1965-1975: The Foundation Years

1965 - Higher Education Act

President: Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat)

• Higher Education Act signed into law, establishing federal financial aid programs

• Sets foundation for future grant programs

• Part of Johnson's "Great Society" domestic agenda

1970 - Nixon's Controlled Substances Act

President: Richard Nixon (Republican)

• Controlled Substances Act signed, creating five drug schedules¹

• Sets foundation for criminalization approach to drug use

• Beginning of shift from rehabilitation to punishment model

June 17, 1971 - War on Drugs Declared

President: Richard Nixon (Republican)

• Nixon declares drug abuse "public enemy number one"²

• Increases federal funding for drug control agencies

• *Note: Later revealed by aide John Ehrlichman in 1994 that the war on drugs was designed to target "the antiwar left and Black people"*³

1972 - Pell Grant Program Created

President: Richard Nixon (Republican)
Congress: Democratic Majority

• Education Amendments Act of 1972 signed June 23⁴

• Creates Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG), later renamed Pell Grant

• Prisoners become eligible for grants from the beginning⁵

• Named after Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI)

• Lois Rice, known as the "mother of the Pell Grant," instrumental in lobbying⁵

1973 - Drug Enforcement Administration Created

President: Richard Nixon (Republican)

• DEA established to target illegal drug use and smuggling

• Given 1,470 special agents and budget of less than $75 million²

• Today has nearly 5,000 agents and $2.03 billion budget²

1973-74 - First Pell Grants Distributed

• 176,000 students receive $47.6 million total⁵

• Prisoners among eligible recipients from the start

1976-1985: Early Restrictions Begin

1976 - First Student Loan Bankruptcy Restrictions

President: Gerald Ford (Republican)

• First restrictions on bankruptcy discharge of student loan debt⁶

• Based on largely baseless claims of abuse

• Loans can't be discharged in first 5 years of repayment

1978 - Middle Income Student Assistance Act

President: Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

• Makes middle-income families eligible for Pell Grants⁵

• Expands program to 1.5 million additional students

1980 - Program Renamed

President: Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

• BEOG renamed "Pell Grant" to honor Senator Claiborne Pell⁴

Early 1980s - Crack Epidemic Begins

• Media coverage drives public fear⁷

• Sets stage for harsh sentencing disparities

• Crack use disproportionately portrayed as Black problem despite similar rates of powder cocaine use among whites

1982 - Prison College Programs Peak

• 350 college-in-prison programs operating

• 27,000 prisoners enrolled (9% of prison population)⁸

• Primarily funded through Pell Grants

1984 - Comprehensive Crime Control Act

President: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Congress: Republican Senate, Democratic House

• Eliminates federal parole⁹

• Results in surge of geriatric prisoners

• Receives overwhelming bipartisan support

1986-1993: The Escalation

1986 - Anti-Drug Abuse Act

President: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Congress: Democratic House, Republican Senate

• $1.7 billion for War on Drugs¹⁰

• Creates 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine¹⁰

  • 5 grams crack = 5-year minimum sentence

  • 500 grams powder cocaine = same sentence

• Crack predominantly used by Black Americans, powder by whites¹⁰

• 29 new mandatory minimum sentences created¹¹

• Len Bias (basketball player) and Don Rogers (NFL) die from cocaine, spurring legislation¹¹

• Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign in full swing

1990 - Crime Control Act

President: George H.W. Bush (Republican)
Congress: Democratic Majority

• Extends bankruptcy waiting period for student loans to 7 years⁶

• Further restrictions on drug offenders

1991 - Student Loan Collection Enhanced

President: George H.W. Bush (Republican)

• Six-year statute of limitations on defaulted loan collection eliminated⁶

• Makes student debt essentially permanent

1992 - Early 1990s Prison Education Landscape

• Estimated 772 programs in 1,287 correctional facilities⁸

• Amendment makes those with life sentences/death penalty ineligible for Pell⁸

• Still less than 1% of total Pell spending goes to prisoners¹²

April 29, 1992 - Los Angeles Riots

President: George H.W. Bush (Republican)

• Riots follow acquittal of officers who beat Rodney King¹³

• 63 killed, 2,383 injured, over $1 billion in damage¹³

• Heightens national focus on crime and criminal justice

• Presidential candidate Bill Clinton promises to be "tough on crime"¹³

November 1993 - Senate Crime Bill Debate

President: Bill Clinton (Democrat)
Congress: Democratic Majority

• Biden's Senate version passes 95-4¹⁴

• Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) calls it "the finest anti-crime bill in the history of this country"¹⁵

• Mitch McConnell among Republicans voting yes¹⁵

• Biden working with segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond on legislation¹⁶

1994: The Turning Point

September 13, 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act

President: Bill Clinton (Democrat)
Congress: Democratic Majority (103rd Congress)

• **Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee: Joe Biden (D-Delaware)**¹⁷

• Biden primary author and shepherd of the legislation¹⁷

• $30 billion omnibus crime bill, largest in U.S. history¹⁷

Key Provisions:

• BANS ALL PRISONERS FROM RECEIVING PELL GRANTS⁸

• 100,000 new police officers funded¹⁷

• $9.7 billion for prison construction¹⁷

• "Three strikes" mandatory life sentences¹⁷

• Truth-in-sentencing incentive grants ($12.5 billion)¹⁸

• Violence Against Women Act included¹⁷

• Federal assault weapons ban¹⁷

The Vote:

• House Democrats voting on Pell ban: 312-116 in favor¹²

• Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN): "Law-abiding students have every right to be outraged when a Pell grant for a policeman's child is cut but a criminal that the officer sends to prison can still get a big check"¹²

• Congressional Black Caucus: Majority voted FOR the bill despite concerns¹⁹

• Two-thirds of CBC members supported it²⁰

• Notable opponents: John Lewis, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Charles Rangel²⁰

Immediate Impact on Prison Education:

• 1993-94: 25,168 prisoners receiving Pell (less than 1% of 3.7 million recipients)¹²

• Total prisoner Pell funding: $34.6 million of $5.3 billion program¹²

• Within one year: 44% drop in prison program enrollments²¹

• By 1997: College-in-prison programs drop from ~770 to just 8²¹

• 1991: 13.9% of state prisoners had taken college course since admission⁸

• 1997: Drops to 9.9%⁸

• 2004: Further drops to 7.3%⁸

1995-2005: The Aftermath

1998 - Student Loan Bankruptcy Eliminated

President: Bill Clinton (Democrat)
Congress: Republican Majority

• Higher Education Amendments of 1998²²

• Eliminates 7-year discharge provision for student loans²²

• Makes student debt virtually permanent except for "undue hardship"

• Clinton signing statement calls it "positive, bipartisan advancement"²²

• No hearings or debate on this provision²²

• Section 971 quietly inserted into larger education bill²²

2005 - Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Act

President: George W. Bush (Republican)
Congress: Republican Majority

• Private student loans also made non-dischargeable in bankruptcy²³

• Further cements student debt trap

2006-2014: Seeds of Change

2010 - Fair Sentencing Act

President: Barack Obama (Democrat)
Congress: Democratic Majority

• Reduces crack/powder cocaine disparity from 100:1 to 18:1²⁴

• Acknowledges but doesn't fully address racial disparities

• Biden as Vice President during this reform

2012 - 40th Anniversary of Pell Grants

• Over 60 million Americans have received Pell Grants since 1972²⁵

• Maximum grant covers only 29% of college costs (down from 75% in 1970s)²⁶

2014 - Study on Prison Education

• Only 2% of prisoners completed Associate's degree while incarcerated⁸

• Only 1% completed Bachelor's or higher⁸

• 58% had no further education while incarcerated⁸

2015-2020: The Experiment

2015 - Second Chance Pell Pilot Begins

President: Barack Obama (Democrat)

• Experimental program launched²⁷

• Select colleges can provide Pell to incarcerated students

• Biden serving as Vice President

2016 - Second Chance Pell Implementation

• Six federal prisons selected for pilot²⁸

• Program gradually expands over following years

2018 - First Step Act

President: Donald Trump (Republican)
Congress: Republican Majority

• Seen as partial antidote to 1994 Crime Bill²⁹

• Reduces some crack cocaine sentences

• Limited criminal justice reform

2020-Present: Restoration

December 27, 2020 - FAFSA Simplification Act

President: Donald Trump (Republican)
Congress: Split (Democratic House, Republican Senate)

• Consolidated Appropriations Act includes Pell restoration¹⁷

• Reinstates Pell eligibility for incarcerated students²⁸

• To take effect July 1, 2023

• Ends 26-year ban initiated by Biden's 1994 Crime Bill

2021-2022 - Implementation Planning

President: Joe Biden (Democrat)

• Biden now President during restoration of program he helped eliminate

• Department of Education develops regulations³⁰

• Second Chance Pell serves as transition model

July 1, 2023 - Full Restoration

President: Joe Biden (Democrat)

• Pell Grants fully available to incarcerated students²⁸

• Must be enrolled in approved Prison Education Programs (PEPs)³⁰

• Estimated 760,000 newly eligible³¹

• Between 2016-2022: Second Chance Pell awarded almost 12,000 credentials³¹

2024-2025 - Current Status

• Over 200 institutions participating in prison education³²

• Studies show even one college course cuts recidivism by ~50%³¹

• Ongoing concerns about program quality and racial equity

• During Second Chance Pell, largest share of recipients were white men despite Black students having highest Pell eligibility rates overall³¹

Key Themes and Patterns

Bipartisan "Tough on Crime" Politics

• Both parties competed to appear toughest on crime

• Democrats under Clinton explicitly tried to "wrest control" of crime issues from Republicans³³

• 1996 Democratic Party platform bragged about tough sentencing and prison funding³³

• Pattern of Democrats supporting harsh measures to avoid appearing "soft on crime"

Racial Disparities

• 1970s-1990s: White students disproportionately benefit from Pell Grants

• As minority participation increases, prisoners (disproportionately people of color) banned

• Crack/powder cocaine sentencing targets Black communities¹⁰

• Mass incarceration disproportionately affects Black and Latino populations

• Even in restoration, white prisoners receiving disproportionate share of education benefits³¹

The Biden Paradox

• 1991-1994: Biden architects Crime Bill eliminating prisoner Pell access¹⁷

• Works with segregationist Strom Thurmond¹⁶

• Calls it "Biden Crime Bill" as late as 2015³⁴

• 2020-2023: As President during restoration of access

• Supporters like Rep. Jim Clyburn defend: "I voted for that crime bill"³⁴

Economic Impact

• Less than 1% of Pell funding went to prisoners pre-1994¹²

• Cutting prisoner education increased recidivism, costing billions

• Student loan debt made permanent through 1998 changes²²

• Today's restoration could affect 760,000 people³¹

Historical Irony

• Nixon (Republican) created both Pell Grants AND War on Drugs

• Prisoners eligible from Pell's inception in 1972⁵

• Clinton (Democrat) both eliminated prisoner eligibility AND made student loans non-dischargeable

• Trump (Republican) signed restoration into law²⁸

• Biden (Democrat) presides over implementation of reversal of his own legislation

References

1. War on drugs - Wikipedia. (2025). CSA's five drug Schedules categorized drugs based on medical value and potential for abuse.
   
   

2. War on Drugs - Timeline in America, Definition & Facts. HISTORY. (2025). In June 1971, Nixon officially declared a "War on Drugs," stating that drug abuse was "public enemy number one." At the start, the DEA was given 1,470 special agents and a budget of less than $75 million. Today, the agency has nearly 5,000 agents and a budget of $2.03 billion.
   
   

3. Fifty Years Ago Today, President Nixon Declared the War on Drugs. Vera Institute. (2021). As John Ehrlichman, a top Nixon aide, revealed in a 1994 interview that was published in 2016, the war on drugs itself was designed to target Black people and "hippies".
   
   

4. The Pell Grant: 50 Years of Opportunities. Council of Presidents. (2023). The Pell Grant, originally known as the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, was created when Congress reauthorized the Higher Education Act of 1965 in 1972.
   
   

5. Pell Grant - Wikipedia. (2025). Originally known as a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, it was renamed in 1980 in honor of Democratic U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island. Lois Rice, an American corporate executive, scholar and education policy expert is known as the "mother of the Pell Grant" for her work lobbying for its creation. Prisoners first became eligible for basic grant funding in 1972.
   
   

6. History of Bankruptcy Law, Student Loans and Debt Relief. Saving for College. (2022). Until 1976, student loan debt could be discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. That year, largely baseless claims that student debtors were abusing the bankruptcy system led to the first restrictions. The Crime Control Act of 1990 extended the period before which bankruptcy proceedings could commence to seven years. In 1991, the six-year statute of limitations on collection of defaulted loans, which had been established in 1985, was completely eliminated.
   
   

7. War on drugs - Wikipedia. (2025). The expansion of the War on Drugs was in many ways driven by increased media coverage of—and resulting public nervousness over—the crack epidemic that arose in the early 1980s.
   
   

8. Since You Asked: How did the 1994 crime bill affect prison college programs? Prison Policy Initiative. (2019). By 1982, 350 college-in-prison programs enrolled almost 27,000 prisoners (9 percent of the nation's prison population), primarily through Pell Grants. By the early 1990s, it is estimated that 772 programs were operating in 1,287 correctional facilities. A 1992 amendment to the Higher Education Act made people serving life sentences without parole and those sentenced to death ineligible to receive Pell Grants. In 1991, 13.9% of people in state prisons, and 18.9% of those in federal prisons, had taken a college course since admission. By 1997, these numbers had dropped to 9.9% for people in state prisons. In 2004, just 7.3% of respondents in state prisons had taken a college-level class since admission.
   
   

9. Race, Mass Incarceration, and the Disastrous War on Drugs. Brennan Center for Justice. the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control and Safe Streets Act eliminated parole in the federal system, resulting in an upsurge of geriatric prisoners.
   
   

10. War on Drugs - Timeline in America, Definition & Facts. HISTORY. (2025). In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which established mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain drug offenses. Five grams of crack triggered an automatic five-year sentence, while it took 500 grams of powder cocaine to merit the same sentence.
    
    

11. War on drugs - Wikipedia. (2025). The Anti-Drug Abuse Act appropriated an additional $1.7 billion to drug war funding, and established 29 new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses.
    
    

12. Advocates push to renew Pell grants for prisoners. The Washington Post. (2023). As of April 4, 1994, according to an Education Department document, 3,327,683 students nationwide had received Pell grants in the 1993-94 school year. Of them, 25,168 were prisoners — fewer than 1 percent. The funding total for prisoners at that date, nine months into the school year, was $34.6 million out of $5.3 billion for the program overall. In April 1994, the House debate featured this sort of quote: "Law-abiding students have every right to be outraged when a Pell grant for a policeman's child is cut but a criminal that the officer sends to prison can still get a big check," said then-Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.).
    
    

13. 1992 Los Angeles riots - Wikipedia. (2025). When the riots including multiple shootouts had ended, 63 people had been killed, 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton said that the violence resulted from the breakdown of economic opportunities and social institutions in the inner city.
    
    

14. Biden on the 1994 Crime Bill. FactCheck.org. (2019). During debate over the Senate bill in November 1993, Republican Sen. Trent Lott proposed a three-strikes amendment that ended up passing 91-1.
    
    

15. Fact check: Why are Trump and the Democrats talking about the 1994 crime bill. NBC News. (2019). When the Senate passed its version of the bill in November 1993, on a 95-4 roll call, former Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, boasted about it. "I believe the American people are starting to see that we mean business about crime, and that this bill is going to make a difference," he said then. "It is, I think, the finest anti-crime bill in the history of this country." Current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was among those who voted for it.
    
    

16. S.1241 - Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. Congress.gov. Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991.
    
    

17. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act - Wikipedia. (2025). Sponsored by U.S. Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware drafted the Senate version of the legislation. The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act banned everyone incarcerated in prisons from receiving Pell aid.
    
    

18. The 1994 Crime Bill and Beyond. Brennan Center for Justice. among the most significant and long-lasting impacts of the legislation was the authorization of incentive grants to build or expand correctional facilities through the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive Grants Program. This provided $12.5 billion in grants to fund incarceration.
    
    

19. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act - Wikipedia. (2025). One of the main reasons that the bill was eventually supported was due to the Congressional Black Caucus after their concerns of rising crime rates in their areas. A majority of the Congressional Black Caucus voted for the bill.
    
    

20. Did the 1994 crime bill cause mass incarceration? Brookings. (2024). In the end, said Maryland representative Kweisi Mfume, the then-chair of the CBC, "We have put our stamp on this bill." Two-thirds of the CBC members voted for its passage. key CBC members voted No on the bill, including John Lewis, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, and Charles Rangel.
    
    

21. Pell Grants Return to Prison After Being Banned. Prison Journalism Project. (2024). A year after the Crime Bill was passed, there was a 44% drop in enrollments among incarcerated students in prison programs. by 1997, the number of college-in-prison programs dropped to just eight.
    
    

22. How the Clinton administration made it harder on student borrowers. The Hill. (2016). In 1998, without hearings and debate, Section 971 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, removed the seven-year legal test. When signing the bill 1998 bill into law, President Clinton issued a signing statement that asserted, "this bill represents a positive, bipartisan advancement for students, teachers, and the future of higher education."
    
    

23. Student Loan Bankruptcy Law: Key Changes and Reform Bills. Tate Law. (2024). The most significant shift came in 1998, when Congress passed the Higher Education Amendments. These amendments removed the five-year waiting period, making both federal and private student loans nondischargeable unless the borrower could prove "undue hardship".
    
    

24. Did the 1994 crime bill cause mass incarceration? Brookings. (2024). While the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, enacted under the Obama-Biden administration, reduced the crack/powder cocaine disparity from 100:1 to 18:1.
    
    

25. Celebrating Success: 40 Years of Pell Grants. whitehouse.gov. (2012). Since 1972, more than 60 million Americans have received financial assistance to earn their degree.
    
    

26. The Pell Grant: 50 Years of Opportunities. Council of Presidents. (2023). In the 1970s, the maximum Pell Grant award covered more than three-quarters of the cost of tuition, fees and room and board at public four-year institutions, but today it covers only 29% of these costs.
    
    

27. Second Chance Pell vs. Pell Reinstatement. Higher Education in Prison. Launched in 2015, SCP allowed for select colleges and universities to provide degree and certificate programs to students who - if not for their incarceration - would be eligible for a Pell Grant.
    
    

28. BOP: Pell Grants Restores Possibilities for Incarcerated People. (2023). In 2016, six BOP institutions were selected to pilot fully funded Second Chance Pell Grant college programs. On December 27, 2020, the FAFSA Simplification Act passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and included the restoration of Pell Grants for students incarcerated in federal or state penal institutions.
    
    

29. Overview and Reflections - Crime Bill. Council on Criminal Justice. Many observers seem to view the First Step Act, signed by President Trump on December 21, 2018, as an antidote for the punitive thrust of the 1994 Crime Bill.
    
    

30. Eligibility of Confined or Incarcerated Individuals to Receive Pell Grants. Department of Education. (2024). The FAFSA Simplification Act (the Act), signed into law in December 2020, restored Pell Grant eligibility to confined or incarcerated individuals for the first time since 1994.
    
    

31. Improving prison education programs. Brookings. (2024). With the restoration and expansion of Pell to incarcerated students, the Department of Education estimates that 760,000 people will be newly eligible for federal financial aid. we know that taking even one college course while incarcerated cuts the chances of a person ending up back in prison by about half. during the Second Chance Pell Experiment, the largest share of recipients of the Pell Grant were incarcerated white men.
    
    

32. A Revised Second-Chance Pell Experiment. Inside Higher Ed. (2023). More than 200 institutions are participating in Second-Chance Pell.
    
    

33. How the 1994 Crime Bill Fed the Mass Incarceration Crisis. ACLU. (2023). Under the leadership of Bill Clinton, Democrats wanted to wrest control of crime issues from Republicans, so the two parties began a bidding war to increase penalties for crime. the official 1996 Democratic Party platform, which was meant to provide a vision for the Democratic Party nationwide, relied heavily on the 1994 law to display their tough on crime credentials.
    
    

34. Examining Joe Biden's Record On Race: 1994 Crime Bill Sponsorship. NPR. (2020). You were bragging, calling it the Biden crime bill up till 2015. Congressman Jim Clyburn may be the single person most responsible for Biden's nomination. He endorsed Biden just ahead of the vital South Carolina primary. How do you answer the concerns that many people raise about his support for that crime bill? JIM CLYBURN: I tell people about my support for it. I voted for that crime bill.