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| Friend, We won a major federal victory just a couple weeks ago and I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it. The year-end omnibus spending package passed by Congress included provisions lifting decades-long bans on student financial aid for people behind bars and those with drug convictions. The bill reinstates Pell Grants for incarcerated people, lifting the 1994 Crime Bill ban on federal financial aid for students in prisons. It also repeals the 1998 Aid Elimination Penalty, a federal law that made students ineligible for federal financial aid if they had been convicted of a drug crime (also known as the “drug question” on the federal student aid, or FAFSA, form). The repeal of these harmful policies is a major step forward in the fight to end the drug war and ensure that no one’s access to health services, education, housing, or employment is ever restricted due to their involvement with drugs. No one should be denied access to education because of a criminal record. Yet for more than twenty years, these policies have punished students who rely on federal aid to attend college and disproportionately harmed Black and Brown people targeted by drug enforcement. Congress imposed these restrictions during the 1990s escalation of the drug war and tough-on-crime era, and in the years since, thousands of students who rely on federal aid have been denied educational opportunities increasingly essential to successful employment. After years of working with our coalition of partners, we’re proud to have played a pivotal role in this win which will have a lasting impact on people’s lives. This victory would not have been possible without the leadership of directly impacted people and currently and formerly incarcerated advocates. We are grateful to have worked with Congress to remove these cruel and counterproductive barriers to education. But there remains much work to be done. Please make a donation today to help fully dismantle the war on drugs and other destructive tough-on-crime policies.
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