Partnerships between community colleges and Sheriff's Departments can be mutually beneficial. The college is able to reach students who are incarcerated and cannot come to campus; the Sheriff's Department is able to provide programming that can reduce recidivism. There are thousands of potential students in our 58 county jail systems who can be served through these partnerships, as approximately 75,000 Californians are in jail on any given day and nearly 90% are incarcerated within 10 miles of a community college.
These partnerships make sense: higher education reduces recidivism, changes lives, and builds stronger communities. Read the full toolkit for tips on how community colleges and Sheriff's Departments can work together to offer high-quality college education inside county jails.