Gwinnett Commissioners Apply for Grant to Help Inmates Learn Job Skills

By Joy Woodson

Gwinnett County commissioners recently voted to apply for a more than $100,000 federal grant that would continue a program aimed at helping teach inmates job skills.

If awarded, the $106,200 grant will come through the Atlanta Regional Commission. The money would allow one additional year for the Gwinnett County program.

"It’s difficult to measure our success in breaking the cycle of recidivism but most of the inmates who participated in this program were gainfully employed during the 12 months following their release from prison," Interim Warden Darrell Johnson said in a press statement. 

In 2012,  for example, 91 percent of the inmates found employment following their release.