The Twin Lakes Literacy Council is offering its services in an unlikely new location to new clientele. For the first time, the Literacy Council is taking its mission to the Baxter County Detention Center for its inmates.
Literacy Council Executive Director Nancy Tester says she and Mary Goodman visited the county jail earlier this month to meet with the program’s first student under the pilot initiative, a 309 inmate who wants to complete his GED. Act 309 inmates are housed in county jails through an agreement with the Department of Correction for work purposes.
Tester said the initial visit went well with the inmate who wants to complete his GED and will be tutored in mathematics and language.
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Goodman says the idea to pursue offering tutoring for selected inmates came from Baxter County Sheriff’s Auxiliary Officer Dan Isbell.
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Goodman says the tutoring initiative in the county jail is a good way to help people get back on their feet.
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While this is a new endeavor for the Twin Lakes Literacy Council, Tester says there are similar programs across the state.
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Tester says at a recent state-wide literacy council meeting in Little Rock, attendees were advised 75 percent of inmates in the Department of Correction do not have either a GED or a high school diploma.
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