Pell Grants and Second Chance Pell Experiment: Hope for Incarcerated Individuals

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Cadelle Kivitt is writing about Pell Grants
Federal Pell Grants were available to people in prison until 1994 when they were taken away
The Obama administration began restoring Pell Grants to people in prison in 2015
The Second Chance Pell Experiment has been gradually expanding
Phil Smith works as a dorm janitor and doesn't earn enough money
Phil Smith uses his free time as a janitor to write
Question posed about whether one would choose journalism if their life had gone differently

A little over sixty years ago, there were 250 prison newspapers being published on a regular basis. Today, there are 26. We visit Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina to meet Phillip Vance Smith, II, the editor of The Nash News.

Learn more about the American Prison Newspapers digitization project here. Listen to more of Fresh Air’s interview with Angolite editor Wilbert Rideau here. Special thanks to Terry Gross and Fresh Air, which is produced at NPR member station WHYY and distributed by NPR.

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