Many jails offer several basic programs to help inmates improve their lives, but some of the volunteers at the Jack T. Bell Detention Center are seeing serious improvements in the inmates’ lives.

Theresa Poe is the coordinator of the volunteer teaching program for the women’s portion of the detention center. Through the volunteer program, male and female inmates are able to participate in Bible study classes and 12-step programs and to study to earn their General Educational Development degrees. Female inmates may also take one of several life-skills or parenting classes to help learn skills that will improve their lives after being released from jail. Since participation is voluntary, not all of the inmates participate in the programs.

However, Poe said some of the inmates have taken valuable life lessons from their time in jail.

“Every person says that, yes, the jail classes did help,” Poe said. “It encouraged them. It gave them hope.”

Lt. Matt Wilson of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said that around 40 percent of the inmate population participates in one or more of the jail classes and that women participate at a higher rate than men. Wilson said he has run into several inmates involved in the classes who have told him that the skills they learned in jail helped them to become more productive citizens.

“A lot of it’s basically life skills, but some of it is the positive reinforcement to get out and do better for themselves when they get out of jail,” he said.

Taught mainly by church groups and the 80 to 100 volunteers Poe has at any given time, many of the inmate classes incorporate either religion or a 12-step philosophy. However, Poe said that one underlying theme in all of the classes is self-improvement.

“I’m a Christian myself, and I encourage faith in God,” she said. “They don’t have to go it alone. It’s OK to ask for help. I guess that’s probably the main thing. It’s OK to ask for help and to learn to trust other people and to trust a higher power to provide assistance.”

Maj. David Jordan of the Sheriff’s Office said that on average, between 20 and 25 inmates incarcerated in Carroll County work toward and receive their GEDs while in jail, which can make the inmate more employable once released.

“I would say that’s one of the more successful programs,” Jordan said.

While educational advancement and treatment for substance abuse problems help many of Carroll County’s inmates, Poe said that perhaps the most important aspect of the jail classes is the compassion provided by the volunteer teachers.

Victoria Sutherland, who has been teaching a life-skills class to female inmates for more than a year, said her classes consist of everything from basic writing and math skills to personal finance and parenting.

“In my mind it’s just critical that they be able to balance a checkbook or write a thank-you note. Write a letter to their probation officer that gets their point across,” she said.

Sutherland said the number of students in her class varies each week. Sometimes it’s as few as four, and sometimes as many as 20 women pile into a small room in the women’s jail to hear Sutherland’s lesson. Though she values the lessons she teaches in her classes, Sutherland said that she feels she connects best with her students simply by sharing her own story.

“I just feel like the women need someone on the outside,” she said. “They need to know that people care about them and they’re not forgotten.”

Tammy Truitt, 39, is one of the inmates who has been affected by Sutherland’s message and the lessons she has learned in other classes. Truitt has been incarcerated for nearly three months after being arrested for violating probation, and this is not her first stay in the county jail. A daughter, wife and mother of seven children, Truitt said she has used the last three months in jail to learn as much as she can so that she will never have to return.

“They really care about us,” Truitt said of the volunteer teachers. “If we go to class feeling down, when we leave, trust me we’re feeling good.”

Truitt has attended Bible studies, life-skills and parenting classes religiously since her incarceration and said Sutherland is her favorite teacher.

“She gives us hope,” she said. “She is so inspirational. She gives us hope to come to class, lets us know that they really care about us ... They’re very inspirational to us.”

Truitt is hoping to be released from jail as early as February and find a job cooking for a restaurant. Though she knows the transition will not be easy, Truitt said the lessons she has learned from the volunteer teachers will help her to improve her life on the outside.

“I’m ready to work, and I’ve got this good church family I’m about to join,” Truitt said. “I’m rededicating my life to the Lord. I’m just ready for me and my children to get back together.”

According to Wilson, Truitt’s new-found dedication to improving herself is the foremost goal of all of the inmate classes. He added that especially for inmates with little or no criminal backgrounds, the classes may be just the inspiration they need to avoid ever seeing the inside of a jail again.

“That gives them something positive to look at, and a lot of them, I feel like this is the thing that turns their lives around and keeps them from coming back,” he said.