A $917,327 grant from the U.S. Department of Education is necessary to start the program. While the cost appears significant, the program may offer long-term financial benefits to taxpayers. The 150 inmates who currently reside in the county's prison cost $3 million dollars a year to house. The program would help rehabiltate inmates and could decrease the number of inmates returning to prison for repeat crimes, thus cutting costs. The department should approve the grant and use the program as a model for other correctional facilities.
Correctional facilities should work to rehabilitate and prepare inmates for life after they serve their sentence. Every inmate deserves a chance to rehabilitate - inadequate opportunities to change detract from that. To better teach criminals to be productive members of society, facilities should give inmates educational tools necessary to live without reverting to criminal behavior. To "make it" in the world outside prison walls, inmates need an education and skills necessary to find a job - or face falling into the cycle of repeat offenders.
The classes offered under the program would offer help to inmates at all levels of education. Ann Arbor Public Schools would offer a GED program. Washtenaw Community College would hold vocational training classes to teach office and computer skills, among others. Child and Family Services would train inmates to become nursing assistants. The breadth of educational programs offers a large-scale solution and promises to allow all inmates an equal opportunity to improve themselves.
After completion of the training, the program would place participants at local businesses for on-the-job training. The program offers inmates hands-on work experience, and businesses a trained workforce - a situation beneficial to all concerned. After being released from prison, the program should also offer job placement to ensure that participants' new training is fully utilized.
Education plays an important role in being able to support oneself. It can also help criminals turn their lives around and help themselves after they serve their sentences. The county's new program would offer inmates educational opportunities that could help them improve their lives while decreasing prison populations and costs. The program is a model for other correctional facilities to follow as it works to achieve the goal of rehabilitation and eliminate repeat criminal offenders - the sheriff's department deserves commendation for the creation of such an effective program. It behooves the commisioners to approve the program as it could help reduce crime, provide educational opportunities to inmates and could save taxpayers money in the long run.