Expanding the Mission, USM Educating Students at Lansing Correctional Facility

The University of Saint Mary is extending its mission – not just to students on its Leavenworth, Overland Park, and online campuses but also to incarcerated students.

The U.S. Department of Education selected Saint Mary as part of its Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative to provide need-based Pell grants to people in state and federal prisons. In February, USM began offering bachelor’s degrees in Computer Information Systems to students at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas.

USM has a long history of offering postsecondary education at penal institutions. From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Saint Mary established programs at four correctional facilities in the Leavenworth area.

“Evidence shows that quality postsecondary education changes lives for the better,” University President Sister Diane Steele said. “USM has witnessed this firsthand from our previous experience educating incarcerated students. We believe our participation in Second Chance Pell will improve opportunities for incarcerated people and lead to safer prisons and communities.”