The Nueces County Jail has won an international award for a financial literacy program it offers to female inmates.
The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards gave the jail's "Second Chance Money Skills" program first prize in its "Closing the Gender Gap" category.
The program teaches financial literacy skills to female inmates in Nueces County, with the hopes they will use those tools when they're released and pass them on to their families.
Alimursal Ibrahimov, a PhD student at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, designed and teaches the class.
"I believe this is not just second chance for the money skills part but this is the second chance for all the individuals who are in jail to re-enter society and rebuild their life," Ibrahimov said.
Judge Melissa Madrigal, who is on the Corpus Christi Literacy Council that helped move the program forward, says inmates have told her how it has helped them.
"Sometimes they're trusting and they're like 'Hey this is what I learned and I was talking to my kid and this is what I told them.' I think that's a great thing especially if they're going to pass it on," Madrigal said.
Nueces County Sheriff J.C. Hooper says the reception from inmates has been positive.
"They're actually getting something out of this and I'm hearing real good reports about how receptive they are," Hooper said.
Ibrahimov says he continues to refine the program after each session.
"After every single session I go and look to improve it," Ibrahimov said.
He says the recognition was meaningful, especially given the competition.
"It was quite a joy to realize the project got the winner. When I look at second and third place they were much bigger universities and organizations that got the runner up and third places... it quite made my day," Ibrahimov said.
Hooper says the jail plans to continue the program and hopes more inmates choose to participate.
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