A Message From Bard Prison Initiative by Max Kenner

On Friday, at a joint press conference, the Secretary for Education and Attorney General announced the Obama administration's intention to explore the restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated Americans. Next month, the Department of Education will launch an "experimental site" program which restores Pell eligibility for three years, for a small group of participating programs which will be chosen in the months ahead.

This announcement is evidence that optimism is not unwarranted. After many years of things only getting worse, after so much work by so many, things can and will get better. If you haven't yet seen the recent New York Times' editorial lauding the announcement and describing BPI's work as "highly acclaimed" and "widely emulated," please read here.

At the same time, the scale of the intervention proposed is limited and reminds us - however far we've come - how much work remains to be done.

Nothing that we've accomplished at BPI over the past fifteen years would be possible without the generous support of individuals across the country who took a risk on us long before the cause was fashionable.

Please continue with us in the months and years ahead as we work to ensure the next generation of Americans will be better served by our systems of education and justice than the last one.

To celebrate this milestone, please join me in making a contribution to BPI here.