JCTC Prison Program History

Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC) has a long history of providing post-secondary education to inmate students, adding this component to its array of services in 1975.  Its classes have always met the same high academic standards of those offered on its other campuses in the Jefferson County area, and a variety of student support services are also delivered to the prison facilities.

Prison education is an important part of JCTC's mission of service to its community.  Without JCTC’s commitment to its Prison Program, many lives would be far less richer and many persons denied an all-important “second chance.”

In 1975, JCTC became involved in prison education when a professor heard a call from an inmate on a local radio show.  This female inmate was discussing the lack of intellectual stimulation available at that time in the prisons.  Soon the College was offering non-credit classes at KCIW (Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women).  Within a short while, the program changed to credit classes and expanded to the KSR (Kentucky State Reformatory) and some years later to LLCC (Luther Luckett Correctional Complex).

At first, the correctional education programs were funded by the Kentucky Department of Corrections and then by Federal Pell Grants.  In Kentucky, hundreds of highly motivated incarcerated students were enrolled in college classes.  However, with the passage of the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals were stopped throughout the U.S.  Kentucky followed suit with laws forbidding State funding for prison tuition.  Although the use of Pell money by incarcerated students in no way took money from other college students, the mood of the public and Congress was punitive, and one of the most effective treatment programs in prisons was stopped.

A year later, a small group of students and a prison school director approached JCTC and a new community-based program was born.  Because of the steady and dedicated giving of private citizens willing to sponsor individual inmates, the prisons realized there was some community support and not a complete backlash against college courses for inmates.  Within the imposed State restrictions, the prisons found ways to supplement private funding through inmate canteen profits.  Working together, concerned individuals from both within and outside the College formed a grassroots effort that grew from a struggling program of twenty students in one prison to a current enrollment of over 350 in four facilities.  Inmates housed in the Dismas Halfway House are also helped with tuition grants so that former inmates can attend college as they reenter the community.

Inmates in the facilities served by JCTC come from around the State.  Consequently, individuals and organizations from all over Kentucky receive support from this JCTC outreach effort.  In addition, other prisons around Kentucky have followed the JCTC model and have established college programs.