MADRAS, OR -- Central Oregon Community College begins the fall term Monday at campuses in Bend, Redmond, Prineville, Madras and the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution. After a 26-year ban, federal Pell Grants can now be used for incarcerated students to take college courses and COCC is one of the first schools in the country to receive Pell Grant certification. The school now offers an Associates Degree within its prison education program. Only individual classes and skills training, like welding, have been offered at DRCI in the past.

"There are lots of data that demonstrate that engaging with education, particularly higher education, reduces recidivism," says Program Coordinator and biology teacher Emma Chaput. She says offering an Associates Degree to incarcerated adults seemed a natural fit, "We are a community college and our mission is to provide high quality educational opportunities throughout our community. And these students are members of our community."

Short-term state funding allowed the program to start last spring, giving COCC time to adapt and adjust before students gained access to federal financial aid. Chaput says, "It is not an environment that is conducive to studying, to learning, to focusing on higher education." She adds, "At the moment, students have virtually no access to technology: no internet, no email, limited computer access." She says students have to be motivated to succeed, "The students have reported, particularly - and I hadn't thought about this - that noise can be a real challenge for focusing. Because they don't have a lot of control over their external environment."

And, she's proud of how the class worked together, "To create college space. We have had lots of conversations about how do we shut the door and be in college? And make that transition, both for them and the instructors."

This fall, 17 students at Deer Ridge are offered three courses towards their Associates Degree.