Monday, March 31, 2003 | 9:10 a.m.
The Nevada Corrections Department is receiving federal grant money, totaling about $50,000 a year, to provide college classes for eligible inmates under 25 years old. The program is worthy, as studies show that the more education people have, the less likely they are to land in prison, or back in prison.
In a story last week, however, Sun reporter Jennifer Knight pointed out an inequity. The department has ruled that because the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility is managed by a private company, inmates confined there are ineligible to apply for any of this funding. The prison has a program taught by professors at the Community College of Southern Nevada, but inmates must use their own money to pay for classes. The state is wrong to deny the female inmates the opportunity to apply for this federal funding. They are still state of Nevada inmates, regardless of who manages them, and should be as eligible for federal grant money as any other inmate.
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