With Pell grants soon available to incarcerated students, colleges look to expand in prisons
Brittney Dixon has high hopes for her education.
“I want to get my master’s,” Dixon says. “Dreaming big. I want to get into psychology, be a therapist.”
The 29-year-old is incarcerated at Taycheedah, a state women’s prison in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
“Prison is a horrible experience, but because we’re in this predicament, it’s like maybe this is what people needed to go back to school,” Dixon says. “I know that I had every other excuse when I was out not to.”
Wisconsin prisons have historically focused education efforts on GED classes and vocational training — not college. But that’s starting to change.
