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Washington County inmates work toward high school diplomas through new virtual program

The sheriff's office stopped in-person GED classes when the pandemic hit and started a virtual, home school curriculum to help inmates get their diploma.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Washington County Sheriff's Office stopped offering an in-person GED program when the pandemic hit, but they've found another way to help inmates work towards their futures.

Captain Corey King with the Washington County Sheriff's Office saw the need to find an alternative diploma program for inmates after they had to stop offering their GED classes.

"We feel like we have to have something to offer the inmate population here, so we were doing GED and when the pandemic hit we had to stop the in-person GED," King said.

King teamed up with Annise Mabry, the founder of a virtual, home school program to offer classes for inmates looking to finish their high school credits.

"They work at their own pace. That's the beautiful thing about it. I mandate to them, you have to finish one class every 30 days. If you finish a class before 30 days. then that means you get another class," Mabry said.

"We settled on three good candidates for our pilot program. We selected them based on how long they were going to be here, how long we anticipated them being here, how far they had progressed in high school and the possibility of them latching on the program and actually being motivated to try and complete it," King said.

"When you look at recidivism, the majority of your people who are what I call on the 'frequent flyer club,' they don't have a high school diploma or they have some type of substance abuse problem," Mabry said.

Mabry partners with technical colleges to help former inmates pursue careers.

"The majority of our students qualify for the Pell Grant, which at the technical college, means that they're going to school for free. I always work to get them into a diploma program, so they're learning a trade. So that's kind of their 'what's next'," Mabry said.

The inmates take classes six days a week for about 7-8 hours a day. The program was funded by corporate donations.

King says they'll expand the program if they get approved for a new grant.

Mabry says she's worked with 11 Georgia police departments. Washington County is the first sheriff's office to start the program.

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