Higher Education in Prison program receives $2.3M grant to expand opportunities for incarcerated students

Portland State University received a 5-year, $2.3 million grant from the Ascendium Education Group on July 31. The funding will allow PSU’s Higher Education in Prison program to expand further and form a pathway for students to move from associate degrees to bachelor degrees — in turn increasing the number of marginalized and incarcerated students in Oregon who are able to earn a college degree. Ascendium is a nonprofit that gives funding nationally to programs that remove structural barriers to success in higher education.

“We are so grateful to Ascendium Education Group for believing in us and supporting this model,” said Deb Arthur, founder of PSU’s Higher Education in Prison program and professor in University Studies. “This is game-changing for higher education access for incarcerated students in Oregon. This project also will have significant positive impacts for the state as a whole.”

The Higher Education in Prison program was launched in 2019 at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility — Oregon’s only correctional facility for women — with the intent to engage incarcerated women, including trans-identified and gender-nonconforming people, in rigorous and student-centered college-level education. The grant from Ascendium comes on the heels of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities that allowed PSU to offer a new 6-course humanities sequence at Coffee Creek, and just weeks after incarcerated students regained access to Pell Grant funding to pay for higher education.

“We are excited and honored that Ascendium will support PSU in stepping into the advancement of higher education opportunities for incarcerated students across the state,” said Shelly Chabon, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Portland State. “As Oregon's urban, research access institution — and the only four-year institution in the state preparing for the return of federal Pell dollars for incarcerated students — we are perfectly situated to build these strategic partnerships and shepherd this project.”

The grant will support a new partnership between PSU, Portland Community College (PCC) and Chemeketa Community College and allow all three institutions to serve students more effectively and in greater numbers. Two College Navigators will also be hired to advise and support students along their path to education in partnership with each institution: one in Salem working with Chemeketa and Oregon State Penitentiary and Santiam Correctional Institution, and the other in Portland working with PCC and Coffee Creek and Columbia River Correctional Institution. PCC and Chemeketa currently provide a pathway for incarcerated students to earn an associate’s degree, but the transfer path to four-year institutions like Portland State is underdeveloped. The Ascendium funding will financially support the development of this pathway and increase equitable access to higher education in Oregon. 

“We know that degree attainment greatly reduces recidivism, and gives people choices in life and opportunities for real, meaningful employment,” Arthur said. “It is thrilling that PSU can step into this work and contribute in such a profound way toward addressing the impacts of mass incarceration on our communities.”