Wilcox State Prison inmates earn GEDs, landscaping certificates

ABBEVILLE — Dozens of state prisoners in south Georgia have succeeded in improving themselves by earning their General Educational Development and specialist certificates.

Wilcox State Prison hosted a graduation ceremony recently to celebrate 33 offenders who received GEDs and 12 offenders who received landscaping specialist certificates.

“Our mission is to provide effective programming to the offender population so they can obtain gainful employment upon re-entry (into society),” Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Gregory C. Dozier said. “We are grateful to our hardworking staff and our partners at Wiregrass Technical College for helping to make these programs a success.”

At the event, the valedictorian of the graduates recognized Education Officer Debbie Williams with the agency’s Golden Apple Award for her efforts in helping the offenders earn their diplomas, corrections officials said.

The GED program at Wilcox provides educational services catered to offenders who did not complete their high school education. Officials said students must pass tests in four basic subject areas — mathematics, Language Arts, science and social studies —to acquire their GED.

The vocational landscaping program is in partnership with Wiregrass Tech. Officials said the 30-week program is broken into two 15-week semesters, and offenders receive a certificate as a landscape specialist upon completion.

Wilcox State Prison is a medium-security prison with an adult male population located in Abbeville. Constructed in 1993, it has a capacity of 1,827 inmates and is the host facility for the Turner Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Facility.

The Georgia Department of Corrections has one of the largest prison systems in the United States and is responsible for supervising nearly 52,000 prisoners. It is the largest law enforcement agency in the state with approximately 10,500 employees.