Michigan has increased access to education and job training inside prisons, according to state data cited by the Michigan Department of Corrections and program partners, showing gains in participation and completions over the past several years. The department said about 4,000 inmates completed programs last fiscal year, up 66% from about 2,400 in 2020, as Michigan expanded academic and vocational offerings across its prison system. The same data showed that about 11,000 of the state’s roughly 33,000 prisoners participated in programs last year.
Programs in Michigan prisons span a range of education and workforce-training options, with the state offering opportunities that include high school equivalency and special education as well as trade-related instruction. The offerings described include fields such as welding, robotics and commercial truck driving, aimed at equipping incarcerated people with skills and credentials intended to support reintegration when they leave prison.
Jenni Riehle, the department’s spokesperson, said the Michigan Department of Corrections has focused on increasing access to educational programs over the last decade, including adding career and technical education and expanding postsecondary options through partner colleges and universities. Riehle told Bridge Michigan that the work has included developing and launching new career and technical education programs with support from the state budget and expanding postsecondary programming with partner colleges and universities, “thanks to the restoration of federal Pell Grants for those who are incarcerated.”
The availability of Pell Grants changed in 2020, when Congress reinstated eligibility for incarcerated individuals after a nearly 30-year ban that began with a 1994 crime bill. Riehle also described a recent effort to expand capacity by turning an industrial factory into an educational center: the department began transforming the Michigan State Industries factory at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer into an educational center, with the facility expected to open by mid-2027.
Riehle said the department has seen educational programming create “a positive focus within facilities,” offering a productive outlet and helping reduce behavioral incidents. She added that inmates on parole who participated in Vocational Village at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia and Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson have a lower recidivism rate than the general prison population, according to the department.
Michigan also relies on colleges and universities to deliver postsecondary education in state prisons. The partnerships described include Jackson College, Eastern Michigan University, Calvin University, Hope College, Grand Valley State University, Lake Superior State University and Wayne State University, each working with incarcerated students at correctional facilities.
For about a decade, Jackson College has offered associate degrees and certificates at seven correctional facilities, including the federal prison in Milan. Lynn Wood, Jackson College’s director of corrections education, said the college’s goal is to ensure students complete a program and earn a credential, adding that course choices are made to help students stay on track for completion, “especially before they have a parole date, so that they can walk out with that credential.” Wood also recalled a former student who was promoted from an entry-level job to a management position in the food service industry after earning an associate degree in business management while incarcerated.
The education efforts described are not limited to two-year degrees. The cluster said some universities offer bachelor’s programs tailored to incarcerated students and that initiatives aim to mirror aspects of traditional campus life while preparing students for continued education and reentry after release. Meghan Lechner, director of the College in Prison & Returning Citizens Fellowship, said her goal is to provide a main campus experience “as close as possible” for students at the Women’s Huron Valley Facility campus, including offering student clubs and an annual Business Pitch Competition and participation at EMU’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Eastern Michigan University runs a College in Prison program that offers a bachelor’s degree in general studies to women incarcerated at Huron Valley Correctional Facility, described as the state’s only women’s prison in Washtenaw County. Lechner said the program launched in 2023 and held its first graduation ceremony in September for 12 incarcerated women who earned bachelor’s degrees, and that Pell Grants primarily funded the initiative.
Lechner said the program includes wraparound reentry services for participants upon release, including helping them find pathways to continue education at Eastern Michigan University or beyond. She added that, currently, four women who began the program while incarcerated have transitioned to EMU’s main campus to finish their degrees, and she said the initiatives and goals are shaped by student input, calling the students “truly special and the heartbeat of our program.”
Calvin University also participates in prison education through its prison initiative at Thumb Correctional Facility. Lisa Spoelhof Schra, executive director of the program, said the initiative provides men with a double major bachelor’s degree in faith and community leadership and human services at Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, and that since the program began in 2015, 88 men have received their bachelor’s degrees, with 18 on track to graduate in May. Spoelhof Schra said the program was intended from its inception to serve men serving long or life sentences and that the program provides education comparable to the university’s main campus.
She said individuals receive a certificate after the first year, an associate’s degree after two years, and then the bachelor’s degree upon completion, with the program taking five years to complete. The department’s effort to expand access to education and training inside prisons, including through Pell Grants and partnerships with higher-education institutions, is designed to deliver credentials that can help incarcerated people pursue employment and continued study after release.