The Orange, County, Florida, Jail Educational and Vocational Programs

This Program Focus discusses the Orange County, Florida, Corrections Division's intensive educational and vocational programming in its 3,300-bed jail—the ninth largest in the Nation. Setting up these programs required dramatic changes in how the jail was run. In fact, the entire jail now revolves largely around its educational and vocational programs—operationally, budgetarily, and architecturally. The jail offers inmates a wide range of structured educational and vocational programs (from adult basic education to carpentry) crafted to accommodate inmates' short stays, provides job readiness and placement services, offers inmates valuable incentives to participate in programming—and to avoid misconduct, manages most inmates through direct supervision to contain costs, promotes inmate responsibility, and allows for open areas that can be used as classrooms.