Studies indicate a link between lack of education and crime and imply that criminality may be a functional substitute for a legitimate career. Instead of providing released inmates with subsistence incomes, it may be more beneficial to provide job skills before release and assistance in securing employment upon release. Although correctional education programs have grown, there are significant practical differences between educational programming options for jail and prison inmates. Jails serve short-term populations and lack the space available in prison facilities. Jail inmates also lack parole incentives and good-time credit sentence reductions available to their prison counterparts. Nonetheless, educational programs benefit both jail and prison inmates. In Jefferson County, Kentucky, the ROBBE program is designed to serve 600 jail inmates over a 2-year period. Offered at two locations to medium-security inmates, the program's instructional model is based on the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), a widely used method of assessing adult basic skills and English as a second language abilities. Early results from the ROBBE program indicate that jail inmates benefit from individualized instruction under CASAS. The major question, however, is whether this improvement translates into success on the streets, and further evaluation of the ROBBE program is planned. 35 references and 3 tables