Grant boosts jail vocational program

The inmates of Yuma County's jail shouldn't be written off as career criminals.

That's the thrust of the sheriff's Prisoner Re-entry Initiative Program.

The program recently received its second federal grant this year, this one for vocational training to give sentenced prisoners the job skills they will need to lead productive lives on the outside.

The U.S. Department of Justice provided the $123,900 grant for the current fiscal year, said sheriff's spokesman Maj. Leon Wilmot.

Citing examples of vocational training, Wilmot said inmates can learn culinary arts to gain employment in the restaurant or food service industry or graphic arts for employment in commercial printing.

Inmates can also take classes in the jail to earn their GED high school equivalency certificates, he said.

Training is provided by the sheriff's jail employees, Wilmot said. "We teach them a life skill they can use outside so they won't come back."

The program, a cooperative effort of YCSO and the Labor and Justice departments, is reserved for inmates who have not been convicted of a violent or sexual offense.

The latest grant will go for equipment and supplies and related expenses used in the training, Wilmot said.

The sheriff's office received a grant earlier this year from the Labor Department. That money was used to form a partnership with Community Intervention Associates to provide pre-release services to inmates, among them the Getting It Right Program.

Getting It Right teaches inmates to make positive life choices when facing barriers such as drug abuse, as well as teaching anger management.