Supervisors save Pima County jail education program

After the Sheriff’s department canceled its existing contract with Pima Community College earlier this year, Chancellor Jeffrey Nasse wrote a letter to supervisors requesting $170,000 to continue adult education programming at the jail through next year.

Laurie Kierstead-Joseph, Vice Chancellor for Adult Basic Education, said she was thrilled the program has a future after supervisors approved a motion to pursue another contract guaranteeing at least $170,000 for the next year with county dollars outside of the sheriff’s department.

County Administrator Jan Lesher will also report back to the board with options to expand the program to two county departments, Detainee and Crisis Services and Justice Services.

The $170,000 will come from either the county’s contingency fund or another funding source Lesher identifies.

Adult Basic Education is taught with the intention of helping inmates eventually pass the GED exam or high school equivalency. Obtaining a GED requires passing five separate subjects in Arizona: Mathematical Reasoning, Reasoning through Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Civics. PCC has offered single-subject GED classes and testing for 32 years, Nasse wrote.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said the number of GED’s earned is too low to justify the cost in an email to supervisors.

Less than one GED per year is awarded to inmates, he wrote.

“To spend $170,000 on a program that has no measuring stick to show any success makes no sense. The data shows there is very little return on investment,” he wrote.

PCC officials said the benefits of education behind bars are shown beyond the number of awarded GEDs at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Most jail stays are not long enough to pass all five required tests for a GED, Kierstead-Joseph said, but the benefits of pursuing individual tests empower inmates.

“It builds their confidence and their momentum,” she said.

Chief Corrections Officer Scott Lowing wrote in an email to supervisors that an average of 100 inmates per month have requested services for the past two years.

However, Nasse reported 2,800 requests in the past year, 1,700 specifically for GED services. Kierstead-Joseph said those statistics come from electronic requests from inmates, and said the county and PCC have not agreed on any report-sharing mechanism, which may have led to the discrepancies.

However, requesting educational services does not guarantee attending classes due to space constraints within the jail and staffing limitations. About 240 students attend classes a year, which Kierstead-Joseph said does not match the demand.

“We have just eight seats in the classroom and just 24 seats available each day ... Even with 1,200 requests a year, there's not anywhere near capacity to serve all that are needing educational assistance,” she said.

Board members showed unanimous support for continuing GED opportunities for inmates, but lone Republican Supervisor Steve Christy said he was skeptical of the sheriff’s motivation to cut the program. He called the $170,000 price tag a “mere rounding error” of the multi-million dollar sheriff’s department budget.

“Why is the education community pulling their hair out trying to save this great program? Because the sheriff says he wants to save a decimal point in his budget? It makes no sense,” he said.

Other supervisors were more reluctant to point fingers.

“I don't think that is lost on anyone, but I think that this discussion has been focused on how do we move it forward,” Board Chair Jen Allen said.

Libby Howell, executive director of Community and Government Relations, said beginning classes inside the jail offers inmates opportunities to continue their education when they get out.

“The GED program at the jail is more about beginnings than endings, it gives those inmate learners a chance to start on new paths,” she said.

With supervisor support in moving control of the program to other county departments, Kierstead-Joseph said she was optimistic about working with the county’s Transition Center as a potential venue for a continuing education program focused on newly-released inmates.