The notion of locking up criminals and throwing away the keys sounds reassuring. It’s an idea that makes many people feel like justice has been served.

But it’s an idea that conflicts with reality. The reality is that the vast majority of people sentenced to prison in Iowa will someday be released.

Knowing that so many inmates will be released, the state offers a variety of educational options for them. If there were no such options, a lot of inmates would go back on the streets and back to doing the things that landed them in prison in the first place.

But if inmates can get an education, and learn some skills, they can leave prison, get a job, and become contributing members of society.

As Gov. Kim Reynolds wisely noted during her Condition of the State Address on Tuesday, educating inmates is the “right thing to do from a public safety perspective.”

Iowa Central Community College is involved in a pioneering effort to bring more job training to inmates, and Reynolds called attention to that initiative in her speech.

Sometimes called Second Chance Pell, the program enables inmates who are within five years of release and who meet financial requirements to apply for federal Pell Grants. Those grants are then used to pay for classes offered by Iowa Central.

Through this program, the college offers inmates in the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility and the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City courses in logistics, welding, carpentry and culinary arts. The welding and carpentry courses are the most popular, according to college President Dan Kinney.

“Through a pilot program, the Department of Corrections is currently working with Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge to offer Pell Grants to prison inmates,” Reynolds said during her speech. “This program is one of the most successful in the country, with more than 420 students participating, earning an average GPA of 3.5.”

The program started three years ago. Iowa Central is one of 65 educational institutions in the country participating in it.

“It’s a great pilot program,” Kinney said. “We at Iowa Central Community College definitely have taken the lead.”

Indeed they have.

We salute the leaders of our local community college for having the foresight to get involved in a program that can turn inmates into productive members of their communities.

We also urge federal decision-makers to turn this promising pilot program into a permanent fixture in the nation’s prisons.