SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco County Jail female inmates have been given the opportunity to become “beta testers.” Inmates are now able to develop coding skills as part of a program within Five Keys Charter School. The goal is to educate inmates so that they can utilize these skills in the workplace upon release.

Five Keys Charter School is a non-profit organization that was first developed in 2003 by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. According to the Five Keys Charter School website, it was the first charter school to operate from within a county jail.

“Through the use of Social and Restorative Justice Principles, Five Keys provides traditionally underserved communities the opportunity to restart their education with a focus on the Five Keys: EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, RECOVERY, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY,” reads their mission statement. Five Keys Charter School has recognized that some sentences are shorter than others, and in response has created accelerated semesters lasting 30 days so that the students can earn more credits in a shorter period of time.

San Francisco County Jail is using the program Code Combat to teach their inmates how to code. It is a community-based organization with more than 5 million players from over 200 different countries, according to codecombat.com. It was founded by Nick Winter and Matt Lott with the mission of bringing coding to every student around the world. The teaching layout is similar to the style of a game where a higher level allows for more complex skills to be developed. Code Combat teaches the inmates programming languages such as Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript and others.

Screenshots from games designed with Code Combat.
Screenshots from games designed with Code Combat.

The program will soon be implemented at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County based on results seen from inmates at the San Francisco County Jail as reported by ABC7 News.