ACC launches program in Travis County Jail to prepare people for jobs after release

Austin Community College and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office have launched a program to help prepare people to find jobs and further their education once they’re released from jail, with the goal of reducing recidivism.

The law enforcement agency and ACC spent about two years getting this off the ground. They announced last month certain inmates in the Travis County Jail now have the opportunity to take eight different courses focused on topics that include keyboarding, office procedures and data entry.

“We know that when people leave our care and our custody that being able to get a job and be a success is very challenging,” said Sheriff Sally Hernandez. “This gives them something to build on. It gives them an opportunity to build a career.”

Currently, 12 people are enrolled in the program. While the jail’s inmate population fluctuates, it was roughly 2,370 people early Friday.

Deborah Benavidez is chair of the Office Administration and Technology Department at Austin Community College. She said one of her personal goals has been expanding educational opportunities to people in correctional facilities in Central Texas.

“I strongly feel that Austin Community College, being a community college, that we should make space for all members of our community,” she said.

As part of the partnership, the sheriff’s office has outfitted a classroom at the Travis County Correctional Complex with computers and ACC is providing the curriculum and instructors.

Benavidez said ACC worked with local employers to figure out which types of training to offer. The courses are one to two weeks long and tuition for the classes is covered by a grant from the deLaski Family Foundation. Students attend class five days a week for four to five hours per day.

“The courses were designed to accommodate a student who could be released from one day to the next as well as for those who may have previous learning experience, or experience in the course material,” she said.

Benavidez added that if students are released while enrolled in ACC courses, they can finish them at a computer lab on campus. Altogether, she said, they can earn 19 credit hours toward a certificate or an associate’s degree with the Office Administration and Technology Department.

ACC is also working with employers to help students find jobs. Sam Greer, the college’s director of employer outreach and experiential learning programs, is in charge of that effort.

“Construction firms, advanced manufacturing firms, hospitals — all of these have need for these sort of entry-level, office administration positions,” he said.

Hernandez is hopeful the program will do more than just help people find jobs once they’re released from jail.

“I want them to have a vision of something much bigger, something much better and I believe our partnership with ACC, in fact, builds that,” she said.