Educational services are offered in only 20 percent of American jails. The most frequently offered program is General Education Development (GED) preparation, followed by Adult Basic Education, life skills, vocational training, and job placement skills. Limited jail educational opportunities reflect the relatively recent emergence of correctional education as well as psychological and physical obstacles including lack of administrative support, high inmate turnover, and negative inmate attitudes. Correctional educators need to develop an approach within the framework of the Education for the Handicapped Act of 1975, that is appropriate to the jail setting. One way to accomplish this would be to initiate a comprehensive correctional or individualized prerelease prescription for cooperative offenders. 35 references (Author abstract modified)