Women in Walker County Jail working toward their GED

JASPER, Ala. (WBRC) - Since the partnership began in 2019, Bevill State Community College has had a GED program for Walker County inmates and that program now includes women.

The Walker County Sheriff’s Office says they wanted to provide a way for their inmates to become a more productive member of society after leaving the jail.

The program started out as a pilot program with their male inmates, but when COVID-19 hit, it forced the program to take a pause before they could include women.

Fast forward to this week and classes have now started back up again for female inmates with the hopes of the men beginning in the next two weeks.

The jail is also offering another program where inmates can earn their high school diploma.

If an inmate only had a few more credits left to finish before getting their diploma they can make up those credits in the jail.

TJ Armstrong with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office said, these are mothers, fathers, children, brothers and sisters of people in this community.

“They are our own family members and so we want to do everything that we can to give them every tool and resource available to have a better life when they get out of jail to make sure they don’t some back,” Armstrong said.

Now, if an inmate is released from jail in the middle of taking their GED classes, they can go to Bevill State and resume where they left off and earn their GED after being released.

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