View a list of the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department strategic partnerships.

Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department staff offer various social service and education programs to a diverse population of male and female offenders. Professionals on the education and social services staff work hard to prepare inmates to become productive members of society as they reenter their neighborhoods.

Suffolk County Jail
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department provides Jail detainees with educational materials and a library.

House of Correction
The House of Correction continues to house a diverse inmate population, with varying educational, social and rehabilitative requirements.

The House of Correction’s education staff works with inmates whose average reading ability is slightly more than the 7th grade level and whose average mathematics ability is the 5th grade level. A motivated inmate can take classes in many different areas of study and at several different education levels. Inmates who read at a very low level can take Adult Basic Education or Special Education classes.

Title I classes are offered to young inmates (under 21 years of age) who need remedial instruction. An ESOL curriculum is offered to inmates whose first language is not English. Inmates who have not earned a high school diploma can participate in pre-GED, GED classes and External Diploma classes.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department also offers educational programs at the post-secondary level, with classes in psychology, parenting, creative writing, business and history. The department also offers vocational classes in areas such as food sanitation, carpentry, computer literacy and graphic technology to make inmates more marketable to prospective employers after release.

The Education Division also collaborates with other agencies such as Bunker Hill Community College, the External Diploma Program with the Boston Public Schools, Boston Medical Center, the Boston Center for Families and Children, the Phillips Brooks House at Harvard, Boston College and a post-release effort for younger inmates with Youth Opportunity Boston.

The Department also acquired a curriculum, On Common Ground, which the Department helped pilot for the Department of Education. This program familiarizes students with constitutional issues. Two of the division’s teachers were trained in the nationally acclaimed curriculum, Facing History and Ourselves. The division also introduced a program known as Fathers Read Aloud, in which fathers were taped reading books to their children. The tapes were then sent home to their children. In addition, the department piloted the Boys Town Reading Curriculum for adult correctional facilities

:: top of page ::