Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons and return to local communities where they will have to compete with individuals in those communities for jobs. In today's economy, having a college education is necessary to compete for many jobs, and the stakes for ex-offenders are higher than they are for others: Being able to land a job can mean the difference between successfully transitioning back into a community and returning to prison. There has been a resurgence and of interest in recent years in expanding higher education in prison at the federal and state levels, particularly expansions that offer a path to degrees or industry-recognized credentials. The 2015 U.S. Department of Education three-year Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative temporarily lifted the federal ban on Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals who otherwise met Title IV eligibility requirements and recently announced that it will expand the Second Chance Pell program to add new colleges to the experimental sites. Focusing on the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative and the experience of the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education initiative in North Carolina--this Perspective summarizes what is known about the educational attainment and deficits of those incarcerated in state and federal prisons and about the effectiveness of educational programs in helping to reduce recidivism. It also assesses key issues remaining to be addressed. It is intended to be of interest to state and federal policymakers interested in expanding these programs and builds on other RAND Corporation research in this area.