A Survey of 2,000 inmates in 2017 made by FAMM presented an insider perspective of what In-Prison education actually looks like. An article by the Marshall Project, a non-profit journal about criminal justice, dissected the key points of it:
"Many prisoners desire job training classes, such as welding, cooking and auto repair, but sessions are limited to prisoners nearing their release dates.
Programs differ from prison to prison, requiring inmates to make transfer requests if they are interested in a certain topic or skill set.
Fellow inmates taught adult continuing education classes 93 percent of the time. Survey respondents complained that most classes lacked rigor and substance to help them upon release.
Earning a college degree in federal prison is nearly impossible. Classes that are available cost too much, prisoners said. Federal inmates are ineligible for Pell Grants or federal loans, other than a small pilot program launched last year under the Obama Administration. Most college courses do not come from accredited schools.
Just 3 percent of survey respondents said they had computer access, a necessity for many online colleges. “There are a lot of online programs offered that are accredited … but you have to have computer access,"