The data shows how incarceration, rather than helping people turn their lives around, cements their place at the bottom of the educational ladder:<\/p>\n
![\"Graph](\"https:\/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/edu_comparison_400.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n- \n
- 25% of formerly incarcerated people have no high school credential at all<\/b> – twice as many as in the general public.<\/li>\n
- Formerly incarcerated people are most likely to finish high school by way of GED programs<\/b>, missing the benefits of a traditional four-year education.<\/li>\n
- Less than 4% of formerly incarcerated people have a college degree<\/b>, compared to 29% of the general public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated people is a staggering 27%, the Prison Policy Initiative previously found<\/a>. This rate differs by education level. For those returning home from prison without educational credentials, it is “nearly impossible” to find a job:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Formerly incarcerated people without a high school diploma or GED face unemployment rates 2 to 5 times higher<\/b> than their peers in the general public. These rates differ by race and gender<\/a>, ranging from 25% for white men to 60% for Black women<\/b>.<\/li>\n
- The number of “low-skill” jobs<\/b> requiring only a high school credential has dropped since 1970<\/a>, leaving many formerly incarcerated people with even fewer job prospects than ever before.<\/li>\n
- Even as college degrees become critical to finding a job, most incarcerated people<\/a> cannot access degree-granting programs, Pell Grants and federal student loans<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
“We need a new and evidence-based policy framework that addresses K-12 schooling, prison education programs, and reentry systems,” report author Lucius Couloute concludes. He offers four far-reaching recommendations<\/a> aimed at increasing access to educational opportunities, for both incarcerated people and youth at risk.<\/p>\n
Today’s report is the third and final part of a new series from the Prison Policy Initiative, focusing on the struggles of formerly incarcerated people to access employment<\/a>, housing<\/a>, and education<\/a>. Utilizing data from a little-known and little-used government survey, Couloute and other analysts describe these problems with unprecedented clarity. In these reports, the Prison Policy Initiative recommends reforms to ensure that formerly incarcerated people – already punished by a harsh justice system – are no longer punished for life by an unforgiving economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our criminal justice system isn\u2019t just sending people from school to prison \u2013 it\u2019s locking them out of education altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-8049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8049"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9992,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8049\/revisions\/9992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8049"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- The number of “low-skill” jobs<\/b> requiring only a high school credential has dropped since 1970<\/a>, leaving many formerly incarcerated people with even fewer job prospects than ever before.<\/li>\n
- Formerly incarcerated people are most likely to finish high school by way of GED programs<\/b>, missing the benefits of a traditional four-year education.<\/li>\n