07/02/96

Contact: Steve Flaherty, 614/593-0321

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University is no longer in the on-site prison education business.

The university closed its Incarcerated Program, effective the end of the fiscal year June 30, because of financial reasons, said Steve Flaherty, associate vice president in the Office of Regional Higher Education, which coordinated class offerings at six area prisons.

Ohio University has provided two-year general education and technology programs at Chillicothe Correctional Institute, Ross Correctional Institute in Chillicothe, Pickaway Correctional Institute in Circleville, Southeastern Correctional Institute in Lancaster, the Orient Correctional Institute near Columbus, and Belmont Correctional Institute in St. Clairsville.

Ohio University's prison program, which began in the early 1980s, was the state's largest two years ago and one of the largest in the country. The university reversed a decision to shut down the program last summer and decided instead to scale back the offerings when Congress eliminated federal Pell Grants for prisoners.

Pell Grants had accounted for 60 percent of Ohio University's Incarcerated Program budget two years ago, with the remainder consisting of Ohio Instructional Grants (OIGs) for incarcerated students and other state subsidies.

In the just-concluded 1995-96 academic year, the university operated the program on OIGs and state subsidies, and was forced to reduce staff and the stipend amount for faculty teaching in the prisons, Flaherty said.

According to Flaherty, the number of financial aid advisers, academic counselors and support staff was reduced from 20 to 5, half as many classes were offered, and class size was increased from about 15 to 25 students per course. Student enrollments in the program dropped from 915 in fall 1993 to 703 in 1995, a 30.2 percent decrease. And the 1995 numbers included 120 students enrolled in a new program at Belmont Correctional Institute.

Our decision to discontinue running the program was based on a financial analysis," Flaherty said. We're just not able to do it. The finances simply are not there. We can't take a chance on using money from our general operating funds to run the program.

We decided to stay with the program for a year as a pilot to see if we could operate on the OIGs alone and see if any additional money surfaced. We barely broke even financially this year. And because of the extra workload placed on the administrative staff and lower stipend for faculty, we felt the quality of the program suffered. We didn't believe we were able to offer a quality program under these circumstances."

Flaherty said Ohio University will continue to offer independent study courses by mail for prisoners, although they will have to pay for them. Most prisoners taking classes received some form of financial aid. Flaherty said the university hasn't ruled out working with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on future prison education projects.

We believe in bringing education to incarcerated students," Flaherty said. We believe this has been a worthwhile program and that it has meant a lot to the lives of inmates."