From Pilot To Program, Educating Prisoners In Michigan

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/24/2025) The Department of Corrections (MDOC) held its first in-person college graduation with Calvin College in 2022, and since then nine universities have offered undergrad degrees to the incarcerated.

Michigan has 13 college partners that are delivering both associate and Bachelor's degree programs for 1,300 prisoners in 14 different prisons. A total of 350 inmates are going for a bachelor's degree, which is offered at nine Michigan prisons, according to MDOC Director Heidi Washington.

"It's part of the department's commitment to investing in and providing quality opportunities for incarcerated learners," Washington said.

The colleges are located near the prisons they serve, such as Lake Superior State University delivering a program for the Chippewa Correctional facility near Sault Ste. Marie, Jackson College for the prison in the city and the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, or Hope College in Muskegon and Grand Valley State University and Calvin University for the programs in Ionia where the first graduation ceremonies took place in May 2022.

The programs are only being offered at level one and two prisons, not at high-security facilities.

"The programs are still pretty young, so we haven't done any formal evaluation. We can tell you anecdotally the impact that we think that they're having on the individuals and on the units and the culture and climate inside the facilities. It's certainly one that is positive," Washington said.

She said national studies show providing post-secondary education to prisoners dramatically reduces recidivism.

"We’ve had probably 90 people graduate with a bachelor's so far and are expected to graduate about 150 with a bachelor's per year.

"It’s pretty remarkable to see those who come to us with a sixth-grade education level, and with us, they are able to obtain their high school equivalence, then they get their associate degree and their bachelor's degree. That's pretty inspirational," she said.

The prisoners are eligible for the federal Pell grant, and the state is putting in a total of $2.1 million for the nine schools offering the bachelor's degree programs, which puts each school at about $210,000.

"Our model does require that the school completely underwrite their education through Pell, state funding, scholarships and private funding," she said.

She said if a student is removed mid-semester, they must pay the school back the cost of tuition.

Washington said any university interested in joining the prison program can contact their college program coordinator and MDOC was doing outreach through the Michigan Consortium for Higher Education in Prison. https://www.michep.org/

"It's important for people to understand that the instruction that these schools are providing, the curriculum, the students, it is the same level of education, the same quality that is being taught on campus. So there's no watering down. This isn't a 'just check the box' and say we did it," she said.

"Michigan is definitely leading the nation in the delivery of post-secondary education in prison, and we do have more college partners than any other in the country," she said.

One of those institutions leading the charge is what Western Michigan University (WMU) Higher Education for the Justice Involved (HEJI) Director Dale Brown called the Coldwater campus of the university. It is the program at Lakeland Correctional Facility.

Brown said the five-year program is fully accredited and just as rigorous as if you were to get the same degree, being named interdisciplinary studies, as a student on the main campus.

"What we're building is an elite college program that just so happens to be in prison," he said.

Brown started pushing for the program as a doctoral student and was able to get a pilot from WMU in 2018, but the pilot was shut down in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the first pilot wasn't able to get credits, but was able to get the information to set up the real pitch that eventually got them the $2.1 million award from MDOC, accreditation and the first class in 2023.

HEJI Program Coordinator McGwire Hidden said there are 37 students and only one class of 25 students is selected each year.

The group was expected to start their third group of students in fall 2026 and the first graduation is set to take place in 2028. With five groups, the college would have a max capacity of between 100 and 115 students.

Hidden said there is a wait list of 3,500 potential students and the selection process requires an application and two essays. They will soon have an interview portion.

Hidden said out of the 50 to 100 applications that get turned in, there are only spots for 25 that make a five-year commitment to the program.

He said courses are made up of an intersection of philosophy, humanities and the core liberal arts education that promotes the kinds of skills businesses are interested in hiring. People with critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills and an ability to express themselves to interact as part of a globalized world.

"They're going to work well anywhere that organizing and structuring information people or projects is important, which is basically everything," Hidden said.

He said it was through the partnership with MDOC that the program was possible.

Hidden, Brown and HEJI Student Success Coordinator Sacelia Strong-Sangster talked about the enthusiasm of the students and that their students came more prepared for class than any student they had taught outside of prison.

"A lot of these folks have waited their entire lives to prove that they could be successful in a college classroom. They come to class prepared. They come to class having read multiple times," Brown said.

Hidden and Brown said it isn't because they are just sitting in prison, and that life on the inside is just as demanding as life on the outside, but the prisoners don't get a choice of when they get to do their everyday activities.

Hidden said the program was given a college coordinator through MDOC to help them be able to determine the schedule for classes with the prisoners.

He said some of the corrections officers asked how the inmates were able to get a free education, and he said he explained to them the non-competitive nature of the federal Pell grant.

The students are also paying their way, through applying for Pell grants and working in the prison, usually third-shift work.  The money from the state isn't going into the students themselves, but the infrastructure and staff to maintain the program.

Brown said he was grateful to be able to see the change that education brings to the prisoners.

"It's palpable. The thing that is so gratifying is that we get to see them. We read their work. We listen to them speak. They write reflections on this. We hear from them in their own works, the types of changes that are happening. The sense of belonging is apparent," Brown said.

He said the prisoners in the program are much easier for the guards to deal with and that education of prisoners leads to less violence because they are able to express themselves in a more productive way.

"You can never be hurt by having education. You're never going to make a society worse by educating individuals and having conversations and expanding our horizons. The only thing we can do is make it better and maybe hopefully see each other better," Strong-Sangster said.

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