About

The Prison Scholar Fund (PSF) provides funding for paper-based correspondence courses, and has been establishing on-site educational programs for incarcerated students. The PSF is introducing a full-stack development coding program with Code Fellows to help inmates develop very marketable skills, and our partnership with the University of Washington opens up cached "online" learning for prisoners. We're also partnering with Edove to introduce secure, digital tablets to inmate for use in preparing and submitting their coursework.

What's more, the PSF is positioning itself to utilize social impact bonds and microfinance arrangements, with the Prison Scholars we support, to become a sustainable organization.

The case for correctional education is very strong. A 2014 meta-analysis from the Rand Corporation shows that through correctional education, the odds of returning to prison decreases by 43% and the odds of landing post-release employment increases by 13%. What's more, a report from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy tells us that every dollar invested in correctional education returns to society $19.62 in reduced victim costs, policing costs, criminal justice system costs, and future prison construction and incarceration costs.

Yes few programs are available.

But that's what we do. We provide funding and programs for incarcerated students. And we provide something else, best said in the words of Kurt Danysh, one of our Prison Scholars: "The Prison Scholar Fund means that I have options. It means I have a future. But above all else, it means I have HOPE. The Prison Scholar Fund believed in me and now I believe in myself."