Lackawanna County commissioners are poised to award a roughly $200,000 contract for the long-sought restoration of a GED program at the county prison, where a nonprofit provider would offer prep courses and testing for inmates to earn their high school equivalency degrees.
The proposed contract with the nonprofit Outreach Center for Community Resources, which ran a prior GED program at the prison that officials described as a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, stems from a request for proposals the county issued in January. The county would use inmate canteen funds — money generated from commissary sales at the prison, not taxpayer dollars — to cover the $200,117 cost of Outreach’s services.
A motion to award the contract appeared on the agenda for Wednesday’s commissioners meeting before that session was postponed a week. Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak are now likely to vote on the motion during the rescheduled meeting April 9.
Officials discussed the GED matter at last month’s prison board meeting, where Warden Tim Betti said Outreach’s proposal covered “all the qualifications outlined in the RFP” and recommended the nonprofit be approved as the prison’s GED provider. Outreach’s proposal was the only one officials received in response to the county’s RFP.
And while the proposed $200,117 cost was higher than officials originally anticipated, Betti said that total includes computer equipment and other one-time costs as well as overtime costs Outreach may incur in the first year as it works to get the GED program up and running.
“We’re talking about an actual program where there are educators that are going to be coming in here holding class, assigning homework, going over that homework, preparing (inmates) for the test, giving them practice tests, etc., as well as getting the prison again listed as a certified site for testing,” Betti told the prison board.
County Comissioner Bill Gaughan and District Attorney Brian Gallagher listen to comments made the public during the Lackawanna County Prison board meeting at the prison in Scranton on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Advocates and officials have emphasized the importance of once again offering GED testing at the prison, which they say makes it far more likely that inmates actually take the test.
Beyond bolstering the employment prospects of participants who ultimately earn their GEDs, a goal of the restored program is to reduce recidivism. Studies have shown that individuals who earn GEDs or participate in prison education programs while incarcerated are less likely to return to jail.
A legislative cover sheet lists those and other anticipated benefits. Commissioners should award the contract because it won’t cost the county any money, will improve inmates’ employment prospects, should have a measurable effect on the recidivism rate of the prison population and “should have positive effects on the psyche of those who participate,” per the cover sheet.
Outreach will require approximately a month to “ensure proper staffing, purchase laptop computers and make applications … for getting the prison authorized to be a test center,” the cover sheet notes.
Inmates who get out of jail before taking the GED test will have an opportunity to take it post-release at the nonprofit’s Seventh Avenue Center in Scranton, Outreach President and CEO Lori Chaffers told the prison board.
The goal is to achieve a passage rate of at least 70% among inmates who take the exam, be it in the jail or after their release. The proposed contract calls for up to 12 classes per week and three weekly tutoring or testing sessions “as determined necessary.”
Wednesday’s meeting where commissioners are likely to approve the Outreach contract begins at 10 a.m. in the fifth-floor conference room of the county government center, 123 Wyoming Ave., Scranton. It is open to the public.