Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, toured the Westville Correctional Center in Westville, Indiana, on Aug. 15 as guests of Indiana Corrections Commissioner Robert Carter and Warden John Galipeau.

Housed inside this correctional institution is an in-prison college education program taught by more than 35 professors from Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame and funded in part by the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program.

The appearance of two federal leaders inside a prison signifies the importance of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program and possibly a nod to Congress to restore Pell Grant access to incarcerated students as proposed in the REAL Act.

The visit also put a spotlight on the role that faith-based institutions play in advancing college-based opportunities inside American prisons nationwide, which schools like Holy Cross and Notre Dame were doing without the assistance of Pell Grants, and the role of these institutions play in preparing men and women to reentry society mentally and, possibly, spiritually healthier than when they arrived in a prison.

When President Barack Obama launched the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program for the incarcerated on a limited basis on July 31, 2015, as part of the Administration’s Experimental Sites Initiative, it allowed partnerships between prisons and public and religious postsecondary institutions, and more than 200 applied. On June 24, 2016, 67 two- and four-year colleges were granted the opportunity to educate approximately 12,000 men and women in 100 prisons in 27 states. The price tag is $30 million, less than 0.01% of the Pell budget. Since the program began, faith-based institutions such as Villanova University, Ashland University, Nyack College, and two historically black colleges in the South (Shorter College and Wiley College) are among the 60-plus institutions that have offered more than 1,000 different courses, awarded 954 credentials, and produced 578 graduates in prison.

While faith-based postsecondary institutions are stakeholders in the Pell Grant-funded Pilot Program, they were also involved in this work before Congress banned incarcerated men and women from using Pell Grants in 1994 and before the Higher Education Act of 1965 made federal assistance available to people in prison. In 1834, for instance, students in the Harvard Divinity College tutored prisoners. During the 20th century, Catholic and Protestant colleges continued work inside prisons, as did Jewish institutions, at times without government support.

These institutions and people of faith continue to be driven by their values to serve those in prison and advance human dignity. We are thankful that for the 60-plus Second Chance Pell sites across the county and the Trump administration’s support for continuing and expanding its reach. As Congress returns from recess, it is the prayer of many that this transformative opportunity will be made permanent to all those behind bars ready to put in the work to become law-abiding, responsible citizens. Our values compel us to invest in the God-given potential of these men and women.

Restoring Pell Grant access to incarcerated students would have a positive impact on culture and public safety, both inside and outside prison walls. Indeed, an extensive RAND study showed that participants in correctional education “had 48 percent lower odds of recidivating than those who did not,” and the early results from the specific Second Chance Pell sites are promising thus far. The RAND study also estimated that every $1 spent on correctional education yields $5 in savings on reincarceration costs: resources better used for innovative policing, victim care, drug treatment and prevention, and other public safety measures.

Dallas Pell, the daughter of Sen. Claiborne Pell — the former Rhode Island Democratic sponsor of legislation that created the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants in 1973 that later became known as the Pell Grant in 1980 —reminded us in a 2013 article, “The strength of the U.S. is not the gold at Ft. Knox or the weapons of mass destruction we have but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.” Faith-based institutions are important stakeholders in this endeavor.

Heather Rice-Minus is the vice president of government affairs and church mobilization for Prison Fellowship. Gerard Robinson is the executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity.