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Maine university-prison education partnership to expand with $1M grant

The grant will help hire a new director, expand the humanities classes offered and allow UMA to purchase new technology for the program.

By Emily Duggan
Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Prison Education Partnership Program recently got a financial boost when it was awarded a $940,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funds will pay for the program’s expansion, which allows Maine Department of Corrections residents the ability to earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, depending on the length of their sentence.

Advocates of the program say a college education not only reduces the recidivism rate for the state, but graduates of the program can be connected to a network in the future to help them find a job upon their release.

“With the Mellon grant we will be able to hire a director of the prison partnership that can focus all their time on the project, committed to working with the (Department of Corrections) facility and people who are either in, on partial release, or have already left and been affected by the justice system, that’s a big part,” said Greg Fahy, dean of UMA’s College of Arts and Science.

Full story: UMA prison education partnership to expand after receiving a nearly million-dollar grant

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