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GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — The staff at the Leflore County Jail is getting ready to launch a GED program for inmates at the facility.
The Rev. Willie Jones, programs coordinator at the jail, told the Leflore County Board of Supervisors this week that funding was in place and the curriculum had been set.
Jones and Ed Hargett, a consultant, were presenting the jail's quarterly report.
"We've been working to develop some programs to deal with the causes and with why inmates are serving time," Hargett said. "What we've been able to do over the past couple of years is develop our programs, which are quite unique to most county jails."
The GED program would be the fourth class offered at the jail, said Jones. He said the jail currently offers a substance abuse class, a life skills class and a course on small engine repair.
"We believe that those classes are going to help those guys, once they get out, to become productive citizens here in Greenwood or wherever they're from," Jones said.
Hargett said Mississippi Delta Community College agreed to provide initial funding for the GED program, which will provide inmates who dropped out of high school the chance to earn a diploma.
Jones said he'll be teaching the class, something he previously did while working at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
At Wilkinson, "we were very successful," he said. "I'm not telling you that we had 100 percent passage, but we did have 60 percent passage."
Jones said he also coordinates a group of about 43 volunteers from six Greenwood-area churches. The volunteers offer Bible study, worship and outreach services in the jail.
"If we don't introduce them to a better lifestyle, they're going to go back and do the same thing," he said. "This is an opportunity to introduce them to Scriptures, just to a better way of life."
Supervisor Robert Moore said the GED course and other offerings are welcome addition.
"I just think this is long overdue," he said. "I think this is exactly the kind of thing that we need to be doing in the jail."
Jones said he was glad to hear that kind of positive response.
"We do have a problem, and the problem will not go away with us just hoping it goes away," he said. "We have to do something. I'm just excited about being a part of that."
Hargett said all the programs are conducted at no cost to the county. In addition to funding from MDCC, proceeds from inmate phone calls and sales at the jail's commissary go into an inmate welfare fund that covers the cost of the programs, he said.
Moore said he hoped more offerings — carpentry and computer skills, specifically — might be added soon.
"We got youngsters that are locked up, some of them spending two, three years right here in Leflore County, and they come out all for the worse.
"For many of them, the reason that they did not complete their schooling when they were young was because they didn't have any real discipline. We don't have to worry about discipline over there," Moore said.
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Information from: The Greenwood Commonwealth, http://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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