Durham County will move forward with a program that offers educational services for incarcerated youth.
During a six-month pilot program, the Durham Literacy Center provided male inmates ages 16-to-24 with life skills and job readiness training.
Brian Jones from the Durham County Sheriff's Office says the program will now be expanded to include female inmates and will help prepare youth to take the General Equivalency Development (GED) test.
"One of the biggest benefits to the tangible increase in reading level is, hopefully, we've provided them with some hope they can continue that and they can achieve continuing to pursue that goal while they're out."
Jones says "follow-up" is an important component of the program, since the average stay the Durham County Detention Center is usually only a little more than two weeks.
The project is not taxpayer-funded. Rather, it's paid for by the inmate welfare fund, which comes from commissary revenue.