Mott Community College (MCC) celebrated a second in-person commencement June 22 in what some would consider an unlikely place – the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer. A total of 19 students graduated, all with honors, during a ceremony that family and friends could attend.
MCC is an educational partner in the Second Chance Pell program in Michigan, part of the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative (SCP), launched by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in 2015. The program provides need-based Pell Grants to people in state and federal prisons, expanding access to financial aid for incarcerated adults to participate in postsecondary educational opportunities.
“I am so proud that we had 19 graduates complete their credentials in Business and Social Work, and they all earned honors cords,” said Mary Cusack, Second Chance Pell Program Coordinator.
“It was our second graduating class of Thumb students, but due to COVID restrictions this was our first in-person, live commencement,” Cusack added.
Percy Glover, Genesee County deputy sheriff ambassador and MCC alumnus, was the keynote speaker. Degrees were conferred by Jason Wilson, vice president of Student Academic Success, with Carla Clark, acting executive director of Student Academic Success serving as emcee.
Social work major Randal Lefevre gave the graduate speech.
“This graduation isn’t about just us,” said Lefevre. “It’s also about our mothers, fathers, grandparents, wives and children. One of my mother’s prized possessions was my GED certificate. She passed in 2010, and I can only imagine how proud she would be to know that I was graduating college.”
He closed his address by reminding his fellow graduates, “when we are faced with the pains of life, the storms of life, we need to ask ourselves how will we use our degrees, our friendships and creativity to make a difference in this world. We need to remind ourselves we have a purpose in life, and that we are givers with something to give. When we see the chaos in society, we need to see the problem and become part of the solution.”
Heidi Washington, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, told the graduates, “I know getting your degree during COVID was challenging, but when you leave here today, you get to call yourself a college graduate – that is who you are now.”
MCC launched its first Second Chance Pell classes in the Winter semester of 2017. The program runs year round and takes about six semesters to complete an associates degree. Students can earn an Associate of Applied Science in Business or an Associate of Arts with a concentration in Social Work. Mott has conferred nearly 60 associate degrees and certificates of achievement to students at the Thumb since the program’s inception.
The Michigan Department of Corrections currently gives first priority to the Second Chance Pell program to incarcerated people who are within three to eight years of release, to help them earn credentials that will help them get a job or start a career upon release, according to Cusack.
The value of educating returning citizens has high returns. Postsecondary education in prison contributes to successful reentry for people who have been incarcerated and promotes public safety.
Incarcerated people who participate in postsecondary education programs have 48% lower odds of returning to prison than those who do not, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology by Robert Bozick, Jennifer Steele, Lois Davis and Susan Turner, in 2018. As incarcerated people achieve higher levels of education, their likelihood of recidivism decreases.
This means that every dollar invested in prison-based education yields four to five dollars in taxpayer savings from reduced incarceration costs, as shown in the 2019 study Investing in Futures, by Oakford, Brumfield, Goldvale, et al.
During the five-year period from 2016 to 2021, 28,119 unique, or “unduplicated,” students have enrolled in postsecondary education through the Second Chance Pell Initiative. In that time, more than 9,000 students have earned either an associates degree, a bachelor’s degree or a certificate or diploma, including more than 1,900 credentials earned in the past year.
“With the expansion of Pell, we may soon be able to offer those serving a life sentence the opportunity to earn a degree,” Cusack said. “This is a positive move because these individuals can be mentors to other incarcerated people, increasing safety and stability for both the incarcerated population and facility staff.”
