Students enrolled in the IU5 Adult Education and Career Readiness graduated with GED's on Thursday night with two of them completing the program from inside the Erie County Prison classroom.

"I was just really happy to be here, it is a good accomplishment, I worked real hard so why not reap the benefits for it," Bokeem Salter, a graduate, said.

"It was easy as long as everybody works together and I had a few classmates I was with so it was real cool," John Clinton, a graduate, said.

"I went to school to get my CDL and I just passed that so now looking for a truck driving job," Dayne Wenzel, a graduate, said.

Two of the graduates took their classes a little differently as they were inside of the Erie County Prison classroom.

Erie County Executive Brenton Davis gave them their diplomas and said that busy inmates are good inmates.

"Having something to do keep the idle time to a minimum, both of those individuals are just as happy as any another graduate, they have the same high school equivalency as anybody else, this gives them that little bit of hope with that qualification going out the door and they are already talking about attending community colleges and that is the next natural step that we are looking at," Davis said.

Jamie Woods, program supervisor, said she is proud of the inmates and believes they have a shot at being successful when they get out.

"It is a story of second chances and as individuals ourselves we face many barriers and we want to overcome these barriers so providing this opportunity for individuals to be successful and to gain an education gives them insight to other opportunities that are out there to make better choices," Woods said.

The three individuals interviewed are not prison inmates.