Congress funds prison school to cut crime and help people get jobs.
S. 5482 — PREP Act · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill sets up a new Office of Prison School. It gives money to schools, groups, and training programs. They teach people in federal prisons to read and earn high school diplomas. They also teach job skills and college classes. The bill spends $170 million from 2027 to 2033. Schools and training groups must track how students do after they leave prison. They must tell people about job rules that might block them.
Who it affects
People in federal prisons get access to school and job training. Veterans in prison can use VA school money. Schools, groups, and training programs get federal money to run these programs.
One thing to notice
The bill requires schools and training groups to tell people about state job rules. This could push states to change rules that stop formerly imprisoned people from working.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 13 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Sep 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- job training — classes that teach skills for work like plumbing or welding
- job rules — state laws that say who can work in certain jobs
- VA — the Department of Veterans Affairs, which helps people who served in the military
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (23,994 characters) on Oct 6, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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