For decades, getting a college degree was virtually impossible for incarcerated individuals because the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act banned incarcerated people from receiving Pell Grants.
Pell Grants are federally funded grants that depend on the students' needs. These grants do not need to be repaid and are designed to help with educational costs like tuition, fees, books, and living expenses.
Before this law, hundreds of programs existed, according to a report from the American Enterprise Institute. But that number plummeted to only a handful, making a college degree almost impossible to earn in prison. Programs that remained were funded privately and scarce.
Now, because of a 2023 change in federal law allowing incarcerated individuals to access Pell Grants, Wayne State University is one of the first in Michigan to launch a four-year bachelor's degree program at Macomb Correctional Facility. They’ve enrolled a cohort of 24 incarcerated students to get a degree in sociology with a minor in entrepreneurship.
Patrick Brown, director of adult student achievement at the Michigan College Access Network, explained the significance of the policy change.
“That opened the door for higher ed institutions across the country to think about how they could provide or expand higher education opportunities to those that are incarcerated,” he said.
Brown added that expanding these programs helps individuals successfully return to society.
“As they exit and return back into society, they will have the resources and the tools to kind of reintegrate back holistically and be able to support themselves, support their families, purchase a home, and think about the economic trajectory for themselves,” he said.
Wayne State’s Prison Education Program's faculty coordinator, Michelle Jacobs said they chose sociology and entrepreneurship for many reasons.
“It's a really nice combination of things, providing students with a deeper understanding of social structures and how that impacts their own lives and the lives of their family members and community members. But then also this entrepreneurial angle, which may be really helpful for folks,” Jacobs said.
A committee selected the students, Jacobs said, including "a student representative from the WSU student org, T.I.M.E Minded, who also represents the justice-impacted community, Jonathan Roden."
Roden spent 23 years in state prison and only has been out for a little over two years. But he’s already back inside a Michigan correctional facility, this time as a first year seminar coordinator and student representative from T.I.M.E Minded. Roden founded the organization, which stands for Tangible Immediate Material Environment. It's a method created for "measuring the passage of time to minimize waste and maximize efficient use."
He said the organization's mission is to serve the "justice impacted community," which he defines as anyone with a close relative or friend who has been in the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Along with facilitating seminars for incarcerated men as part of a new prison education program, the organization engages in various community focused initiatives such as conducting backpack and coat drives, distributing totes to several neighborhood schools.
According to Roden, T.I.M.E Minded was "instrumental in getting (the Wayne State University) program started.”
"That's big for me because I got to see some children who were in the worst conditions, and they loved the idea of education," he said.
“It's still surreal to me, to be honest with you,” Roden said. “I've only been out of prison two years and eight months. And I went back in yesterday as a coordinator for the first year seminar.”
For Roden, the opportunity to get an education behind bars was a turning point driven by a personal tragedy.
He was in prison for a series of robberies he committed when he was 18 years old with his two brothers. His older brother and codefendant, Jermaine, died in prison in 2006, and his younger brother was released shortly after, leaving Roden feeling alone. In solitary confinement, he had an emotional wake up call.
“I remember that night I took out all my pictures, and I laid them all over the floor. And I'm looking at the pictures, and I just start apologizing to the pictures because, you know, because my condition where I was, I led my brothers down the wrong path,” Roden said. “And I get to Jermaine's picture, and it's like I just made all the promises, like, 'I'm gonna get through this, bro. Imma get on the other side of this.’”
From that point on, Roden took his education seriously. He spent hours a day in the law library, learning enough to file civil lawsuits against MDOC.
One centered on Roden's allegations of retaliation against him for filing grievances regarding educational programs at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility, which he claims led to his transfer to another facility.
Roden filed another lawsuit when he found a maggot in a banana in a food service line. Roden claimed a worker responsible for overseeing food service operations retaliated against him for filing grievances regarding this incident.
Another lawsuit came from Roden after a contact visit with his mother, when an officer told Roden to move to a chair across the table from her. Roden argued that his actions were permitted by MDOC policy, which allows prisoners and their visitors to have their arms around each other's shoulders. Roden alleged that when he insisted on speaking to a lieutenant to resolve the issue, the officer threatened to terminate his visit. Roden claimed this was an act of retaliation for attempting to seek redress for his grievance, which is a protected right.
He said that after repeatedly standing up for his rights, he earned a reputation among his peers, who would go to him for advice when they felt mistreated.
Only nine days after his release, he started classes at Wayne State University. Now, he's back inside a correctional facility, but this time, he’s giving hope to others.
“It's surreal,” he said. “When I got in my car… I just let out a yell. I just screamed like, you know, like, 'Thank you, God.' You know, I'm on the other side of this.”
For Roden, the importance of this program is about more than one thing.
“Education is the key to reducing recidivism, to building our communities, to making it safer. That's the key to that,” he said. But it's also about a ripple effect that extends beyond the individual.
“Each time one of these men achieves a level of education, he's calling home. He's telling his family,” Roden said. “So those children that he has, the nieces and nephews, they look up and they say, 'Well, if Uncle John's in there doing it, or if my dad's in there doing it, then education has to mean something.’”
Roden expects to graduate from Wayne State in December, fulfilling his promise to his late brother. He hopes to go to law school and continue to help others.
