Pell Grants will fill gap in welding program for Sioux Falls prison inmates

Inmates in the Sioux Falls area can now access Pell Grants to pay for slots in welding courses in the community and diesel mechanic courses inside prison walls.

Students can apply for federally funded Pell Grants to help them pay for post-secondary education. Since 2023, inmates in the U.S. have been allowed to apply for and receive them through a program called Second Chance Pell Grants, which can be used to pay for courses offered through institutions with approved programming for prisoners.

Southeast Technical College’s application to offer Second Chance-eligible programming was approved in the past month, according to the school’s president, Corey Clasemann.

Clasemann made the announcement during last week’s meeting of the Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force, a group that counts Clasemann as a member. The task force tentatively endorsed the use of Pell Grants for inmate skills training as part of a broader, 34-point package of rehabilitation-focused recommendations, to be compiled and voted on next month. The recommendations are a roadmap for reducing repeat offense rates in a state where half the people released from prison return within three years.

Governor commits funding to revive training program for inmates

The school’s welding program began five years ago, and tuition for the inmates who leave the prison campus in Sioux Falls for job training has thus far been paid for through grants administered by the state Department of Labor. That money ran out this fall.

Now, inmates who want to participate will need to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Clasemann said, “just like any other student,” to determine their eligibility, although they need to use a paper form, not the online version.

The first Pell Grant-funded cohort in the welding program will begin in January, Clasemann said.

Pell Grants will also be available for students in a diesel mechanic program, which the school is setting up in the South Dakota State Penitentiary’s Jameson Annex.

Last year, Gov. Larry Rhoden gave Southeast Tech a $1.5 million grant to help fund that setup, pulling money from the Future Fund. That pool of money is built from fees collected from South Dakota employers when they remit payroll and unemployment taxes.

Southeast Tech also plans to have a satellite campus on the grounds of a $650 million men’s prison under construction in Sioux Falls. That facility will replace the oldest parts of the 144-year-old penitentiary. Jameson, the state’s only maximum-security facility, will remain in service after completion of the new prison. The first diesel training courses are scheduled to begin next August. 

Southeast Tech is the third tech school in South Dakota to be approved for Second Chance Pell Grants. Western Dakota Technical College in Rapid City offers a plumbing program for men at the state’s Rapid City minimum-security prison, and a hospitality program for inmates at the new women’s prison in that city.